Windows User

In some cases, in particular if you want to use the Rattail File Monitor, then you may need to consider which Windows user account the service will run as.

Why It Matters

Rattail File Monitor does “one thing” - it watches some folder(s) and when new files appear it takes action(s) on them.

Most often the “action” is just to copy (or move) the file elsewhere, for further processing. In some cases it may be to “copy” the file directly to a printer port, e.g. LPT1.

Most often the “destination” for files being copied, is actually a Linux server, which runs the “real” Rattail-based app(s). This server exposes a CIFS share via Samba, and the filemon on Windows is able to copy files to the CIFS share easily enough.

But usually the CIFS share will have some sort of user security in place, so not just anyone on the network can access it. So we must run the filemon service as a particular user, which does have access to the share(s), and/or any other pertinent resources.

Choosing a Username

It is recommended to use the default username of rattail unless you have reasons to do otherwise.

However there is no magic about that username, the main advantage to going with it is that all Rattail docs will use it, so you won’t need to adjust any commands etc. when setting things up.

Keep in mind that this user account will need to exist on the Windows machine (see below) but also may effectively need to exist within Samba on the Linux side. Configuration of the latter is not our focus here, but just know that this may be more of a “network-wide” user account - depending on your use case.

Active Directory

As of this writing no AD integration has been attempted.

Only “local machine” user accounts are supported thus far.

Note that CIFS behavior is such that if you create a “local” Windows user with the username of rattail and password rattailpass, and then configure a Samba user account with the same credentials, then things should work. (Please use a different password of course, that is just for example.)

Creating the Account

You probably already know how to create a user account, but if you prefer you can tell Rattail to do it for you. In an admin console (right-click cmd.exe, run as administrator) do:

rattail make-user --system windows rattail

This will create a “local machine” Windows account, with username rattail and the password you specify (which you will be prompted for). This account will be suitable for use with the Rattail File Monitor service.