FIX CTCI mode: Gateway terminates automatically at 23:45 (JST) — IBC exits with status 0 (not reproduced on IB Gateway 10.39.1i)

[gclsgithub]

Gateway terminates automatically at 23:45 local time in FIX CTCI mode — IBC exits with status 0 (not reproduced on IB Gateway 10.39.1i)

Environment

IBC version	3.23.0 (IBCLinux)
IB Gateway (affected)	10.47.1b
IB Gateway (not affected)	10.39.1i
Gateway mode	FIX CTCI (FIX=yes in config.ini)
Deployment	Gateway, headless (Xvfb + VNC) inside a Docker container
Host OS	Amazon Linux 2
Container base	Ubuntu
System timezone	JST (UTC+9)

Summary

We run IB Gateway in FIX CTCI mode under IBC. With IB Gateway 10.47.1b + IBC 3.23.0, the
Gateway terminates itself every day at 23:45 local time.

IBC detects a Shutdown progress dialog together with an Exit Session Setting frame, then exits
with status 0. No autorestart file is written, so the session cannot be resumed and full
re-authentication would be required. At the same moment the FIX session receives a Logout
(35=5) with 58=Process termination.

Reverting only the IB Gateway version to 10.39.1i — same IBC version, same config.ini,
same host, same container image otherwise — makes the behaviour disappear entirely.

This suggests that something in the Gateway's auto-logoff / "Exit Session Setting" handling changed
between 10.39 and 10.47, and that IBC's auto-closedown suppression no longer takes effect.

Log excerpt

2026-06-26 23:45:00:233 IBC: detected dialog entitled: Shutdown progress; event=Opened
2026-06-26 23:45:00:235 IBC: detected frame entitled: Exit Session Setting; event=Lost focus
2026-06-26 23:45:00:235 IBC: detected frame entitled: Exit Session Setting; event=Deactivated
2026-06-26 23:45:00:235 IBC: detected dialog entitled: Shutdown progress; event=Activated
2026-06-26 23:45:00:236 IBC: detected dialog entitled: Shutdown progress; event=Focused
2026-06-26 23:45:00:236 IBC: detected frame entitled: Exit Session Setting; event=Closed
LogModuleConfigurator-Init: Log4j Ver2.x found on classpath
LogModuleConfigurator-Init: LogModuleConfigurator initialized with Log4j Ver2.x
IBC returned exit status 0
Finding autorestart file
autorestart file not found: full authentication will be required
Gateway finished

Relevant config.ini settings

FIX=yes
IbAutoClosedown=
AutoLogoffTime=
AutoRestartTime=
ClosedownAt=

Already ruled out

The shutdown is not triggered from outside the Gateway process. We verified on the same host that
there is no scheduled job at that time:

• user and root crontabs — nothing at 23:45
• /etc/crontab, /etc/cron.d/, /etc/cron.daily/, /etc/cron.hourly/ — nothing at 23:45
• systemctl list-timers --all — no timer at 23:45
• no cron inside any of the containers

Questions

1. Are IbAutoClosedown / AutoLogoffTime still expected to suppress the automatic shutdown on
   recent Gateway builds, and do they apply when the Gateway is running in FIX CTCI mode? Has the
   Exit Session Setting window title or layout changed in the 10.4x line such that IBC can no
   longer set the auto-logoff time?
2. Is this addressed in IBC 3.24.1? (We are currently testing that combination.)
3. Our requirement is uninterrupted operation. Is there a supported configuration that keeps the Gateway running across 23:45 in FIX CTCI mode? If not, what is the recommended way to have IBC bring it back up automatically — given that FIX CTCI login does not involve 2FA, is AutoRestartTime the right mechanism here?

Thanks for your work on IBC.

[rlktradewright]

It looks to me like your Gateway 10.47.1b has its AutoLogoff time set to 11L45 PM in the Lock and Exit section of its Global Configuration, but your Gateway 10.39.1i is configured differently (maybe Autorestart time is set to 11:45 PM instead).

It would hrlp if you sent me the IBC logifles for both instances (the whole files). The snippet you quoted is useless: that's just the standard shutdown sequence where AutoLogoff is configured.

Attach the logfiles to your reply - don't qute them inline.

Can I also observe that it's not wise to use versions that are neither the 'stable' nor the 'latest' version. 0nce a 'latest' has been supersededd by another 'latest', the previous one won't have any fixed for bugs found later. So both versions you're using are liable to have unfixed bugs in them., as they have both been superseded.

[gclsgithub]

Thanks for your response.

I've now tested with the current versions: IB Gateway 10.50.1d + IBC 3.24.2. The shutdown still occurs at exactly 23:45.

The complete IBC log is attached. Only the FIX SenderCompID and the connection hostname have been replaced with REDACTED_USER / REDACTED_HOST; nothing else was altered.

Key sequence:

2026-08-24 23:40:30:470 IBC: detected frame entitled: Exit Session Setting; event=Opened
2026-08-24 23:45:00:546 IBC: detected dialog entitled: Shutdown progress; event=Opened
IBC returned exit status 0
autorestart file not found: full authentication will be required
Gateway finished

Two things that may be relevant:

1. Our container only persists jts.ini — the Gateway settings directory under ~/Jts// is not persisted, so every container start uses that version's default Lock and Exit settings. Nobody has ever configured an auto-logoff time manually.

2. jts.ini contains TimeZone=Asia/Tokyo, so a default auto-logoff of 11:45 PM lands exactly on 23:45 JST — which matches what we observe.
   In config.ini both AutoLogoffTime and AutoRestartTime are empty.

Given that the settings directory is ephemeral, changing the Lock and Exit setting through the GUI wouldn't survive a container rebuild. Is setting AutoRestartTime in config.ini the right way to get IBC to restart the Gateway instead of letting it exit — and does that work in FIX CTCI mode? I ask because the log shows IBC skipping some settings in this mode:

IBC: OverrideTwsApiPort - ignored for FIX
IBC: ReadOnlyApi - ignored for FIX

ibc_10.50.1d_20260825 (1).txt

[rlktradewright]

I think it's the case that 11:45 PM is the out-of-the-box default setting for a brand new instance of Gateway. So if you're not persisting the Gateway settings, then that explains it.

Setting AutoRestartTime in config.ini is absolutely the right way to get IBC to restart the Gateway instead of letting it exit. Provided of course that config.ini is persisted or created each time you start the container.

Does it work in FIX CTCI? No idea, I have no way of testing this.. No-one has ever said it doesn't, but hardly anyone uses that so who knows? Try it and see! If there is a configuration item for Autorestart in the FIX gateway, then I would expect it to work. If there isn't, then it definitely won't work.

[gclsgithub]

Thanks for the guidance — I tried it, and it looks like the answer is that IBC doesn't apply these settings in FIX mode.

With AutoRestartTime set in config.ini, IBC logs:
IBC: AutoLogoffTime Or AutoRestartTime - ignored for FIX
So it appears the setting is skipped before IBC would get to looking for an Autorestart control in the FIX Gateway. That leaves the Gateway's factory default (auto-logoff at 11:45 PM) in place, with no way for us to override it from config.ini.

If you have a moment, two questions:

1. Is this exclusion intentional — is there a reason these settings can't work in FIX mode — or is it simply that the FIX path was never covered?
2. Is there any other approach you'd recommend for keeping a FIX CTCI Gateway running past the auto-logoff time, or for having IBC bring it back up afterwards?

Either way, thank you for the quick and detailed replies — they've been a big help in narrowing this down, and hopefully the FIX CTCI result is a useful data point for you. For now we'll fall back to restarting the container (FIX CTCI login involves no 2FA, so IBC logs back in unattended), so we're not blocked on this.

[rlktradewright]

I think you're missing the point. The question is, does the FIX CTCI gateway itself support autorestart:? If it doesn't, there is nothiing IBC can do to make it so. IBC does not 'do' autorestart: all it does is configure the time when Gateway must do it.

So does the configuration page for the FIX CTCI gateway have fields for specifying auto-logoff time and auto-restart time like the 'standard' gateaway?

Alway bear in miund that IBC never does anything that the user can't do. So if, when running FIX CTCI manually (ie not with IBC), you can't set autorestart time and/or autologoff time), then you can't do it with IBC either. It may well be that the reason IBC doesn't handle these setting is simply that someone told me (probably years ago) that the mechanism simply isnt there.

If ithe Gateway doesn't itself support this mechanism , there is no way to automatically bring it back after auto-logoff, except the obvious one of using cron or scheduled tasks to start a new one shortly after the previous one closes. This was what I did for many years before auto-restart was introduced in about 2017 (if I remember correctly) Your API apps will then have to deal with the loss of connection and re-establishing it once the new Gateway instance is up, but this is all perfectly do-able.