Mac OS X: Loading and Unloading with launchd

In Mac OS X you can use cron to schedule tasks but you can also use launchd.  To use launchd to load or unload an agent where you’ve setup a task use the launchctl command.  Here we will use launchctl to manually start a process given that we defined a plist called /Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.OpenProgram.plist (where program is maybe the name of some program you want to fire up):

launchctl load Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.OpenProgram.plist

Your application should fire up now.  Do not quit it for ten seconds. Wait about 15, then quit it. Notice it start up again. This is because it is a launchAgent and will restart any time it is closed.  Now run:

launchctl unload Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.OpenProgram.plist

Watch your program close.

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Posted on May 29, 2007 at 12:29 pm by admin · Permalink
In: Mac OS X, Mac OS X Server, Mac Security · Tagged with: , , ,

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