Restart function

[iimka]

If I run TWS standalone (without IBC), selecting File -> Restart manually causes TWS to completely shut down instead of restarting. This happens consistently across two different computers, regardless of whether I use TWS version 10.40 or 10.47.

Interestingly, if I launch TWS via IBC, selecting File -> Restart works perfectly—TWS successfully restarts and logs back in without requiring 2FA.

Since IBC is approaching its end-of-life and will stop being maintained in the future, I would really like to understand how does IBC achieve or force this successful restart functionality?

Additionally, I noticed some settings differ between the two environments. For example, when TWS is launched via IBC, the "Current region" selection option disappears from the Configuration -> General.

[rlktradewright]

I have no idea why File -> Restart isn't working properly for you when running without IBC. I have never seen this happen.

Whether you run TWS manually or under IBC, File -> Restart is entirely handled by TWS. IBC has no knowledge of it. So I completely fail to see how these two cases can differ.

Note that if you send a RESTART command to the IBC command server, IBC imply invokes the File -> Restart menu, with no other involvement from IBC.

It's possibly worth pointing out that a RESTART commnd sent to the Gateway (rather than TWS) running under IBC is a completely different mechanism: this is because Gateway doesn't have a File -> Restart menu. In this case IBC sets the Auto-restart time in the Lock and Exit section of the API configuration to a short time ahead, and Gateway then initiates auto-restart at the appropriate time. But this is not relevant to your situation.

[rlktradewright]

I forgot to add that I had never noticed the missing 'Current region' bit from the General tab. I don't know the cause offhand, but I suspect it'll be something to do with different jts.ini files being used in the two cases

[autrader-123]

I have been using IBC for many years.
Although this is my first time posting here, I am truly grateful for this software.

I have also been investigating this exact issue recently.

Does tws.exe exist inside the C:\Jts\version\ directory of the TWS that fails to restart?
I suspect you might only find tws1.exe there.
While it does exist immediately after a fresh installation of TWS, it disappears at some point after running IBC.

In this scenario, you will find an error log like the following inside C:\Jts\version\.install4j\restarter.log:

[ERROR] com.install4j.runtime.installer.helper.launching.LaunchHelper: Cannot run program "C:\Jts\1047\tws.exe" (in directory "C:\Jts\1047"): CreateProcess error=2

There is a chance this can be fixed by either reinstalling TWS or by making a copy of tws1.exe and renaming it to tws.exe.
Please give it a try.

Hope this helps!

[iimka]

Your method (copying tws1.exe and renaming it to tws.exe) did solve the problem. Actually, running IBC afterwards did indeed delete tws.exe again.

[autrader-123]

Thank you for the verification!

To avoid this issue, I currently separate the TWS versions: one for manual execution and another dedicated for IBC. Since I haven't deep-dived into the internal source code yet, I don't know the root cause of why IBC deletes tws.exe, but the behavior is exactly as you described.

[bug-or-feature]

https://github.com/IbcAlpha/IBC/blob/master/userguide.md#how-to-run-twsgateway-without-ibc-when-ibc-is-installed