From morgant at makkintosshu.com  Fri Aug  1 15:09:03 2008
From: morgant at makkintosshu.com (Morgan Aldridge)
Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 18:09:03 -0400
Subject: [launchd-dev] Attempting to develop a launch plist for sysmon
Message-ID: <fbf0108d0808011509xffa655cm488b32daabfda129@mail.gmail.com>

A few years ago I wrote a Mac OS X StartupItem for sysmon
<http://www.sysmon.org/> and I've been attempting to write a launchd
plist for it now that I've migrated my monitoring server to Leopard
Server (currently 10.5.3).

Here's my /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.makkintosshu.sysmon.plist (owned
by root:wheel with permissions of 750):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
        <dict>
                <key>Label</key>
                <string>com.makkintosshu.sysmon</string>
                <key>ProgramArguments</key>
                <array>
                        <string>/usr/local/bin/sysmond</string>
                        <string>-d</string>
                </array>
                <key>OnDemand</key>
                <false/>
                <key>KeepAlive</key>
                <true/>
                <key>RunAtLoad</key>
                <true/>
        </dict>
</plist>

I use both the OnDemand and KeepAlive keys in the hopes of supporting
both Tiger & Leopard with this file. Will I run into any issues there
(I've currently only tested with Leopard Server)?

Also, it seems to work correctly (sysmond loads, loads it's config
file, and binds to its TCP port fine; plus if you kill the process
launchd starts it up again) if I run `sudo launchctl load -w
/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.makkintosshu.sysmon.plist` after boot, but
if I leave it loaded (or, at least, if I don't disable it using `sudo
launchctl unload -w
/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.makkintosshu.sysmon.plist`) at boot,
sysmond acts as if it didn't have any config files to load and it
usually takes an unload & load of the launchd plist to get it to
function normally.

Any ideas as to what might cause this? Will I have to start
investigating sysmond's source to see if it's a dependency checking
issue? Shouldn't the file system be available upon loading the job and
only network services might be unavailable?

Thanks in advance,

Morgan Aldridge
---
morgant at makkintosshu.com
http://www.makkintosshu.com/

From nlwan at nps.edu  Mon Aug  4 12:51:09 2008
From: nlwan at nps.edu (Nathan Wan)
Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2008 12:51:09 -0700
Subject: [launchd-dev] Attempting to develop a launch plist for sysmon
In-Reply-To: <fbf0108d0808011509xffa655cm488b32daabfda129@mail.gmail.com>
References: <fbf0108d0808011509xffa655cm488b32daabfda129@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <55EC561750ED4F93A7A91D5C613B7D30@reeves>

I also have a question about this.  I have been looking at the man page for
launchd.plist on 10.4, and it does not list a KeepAlive key.  Does that mean
that it won't work?  It doesn't seem to be working.  Is there another way to
keep a daemon running another way?

Thanks

Nathan

-----Original Message-----
From: launchd-dev-bounces at lists.macosforge.org
[mailto:launchd-dev-bounces at lists.macosforge.org] On Behalf Of Morgan
Aldridge
Sent: Friday, August 01, 2008 3:09 PM
To: launchd-dev at lists.macosforge.org
Subject: [launchd-dev] Attempting to develop a launch plist for sysmon

A few years ago I wrote a Mac OS X StartupItem for sysmon
<http://www.sysmon.org/> and I've been attempting to write a launchd
plist for it now that I've migrated my monitoring server to Leopard
Server (currently 10.5.3).

Here's my /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.makkintosshu.sysmon.plist (owned
by root:wheel with permissions of 750):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
        <dict>
                <key>Label</key>
                <string>com.makkintosshu.sysmon</string>
                <key>ProgramArguments</key>
                <array>
                        <string>/usr/local/bin/sysmond</string>
                        <string>-d</string>
                </array>
                <key>OnDemand</key>
                <false/>
                <key>KeepAlive</key>
                <true/>
                <key>RunAtLoad</key>
                <true/>
        </dict>
</plist>

I use both the OnDemand and KeepAlive keys in the hopes of supporting
both Tiger & Leopard with this file. Will I run into any issues there
(I've currently only tested with Leopard Server)?

Also, it seems to work correctly (sysmond loads, loads it's config
file, and binds to its TCP port fine; plus if you kill the process
launchd starts it up again) if I run `sudo launchctl load -w
/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.makkintosshu.sysmon.plist` after boot, but
if I leave it loaded (or, at least, if I don't disable it using `sudo
launchctl unload -w
/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.makkintosshu.sysmon.plist`) at boot,
sysmond acts as if it didn't have any config files to load and it
usually takes an unload & load of the launchd plist to get it to
function normally.

Any ideas as to what might cause this? Will I have to start
investigating sysmond's source to see if it's a dependency checking
issue? Shouldn't the file system be available upon loading the job and
only network services might be unavailable?

Thanks in advance,

Morgan Aldridge
---
morgant at makkintosshu.com
http://www.makkintosshu.com/
_______________________________________________
launchd-dev mailing list
launchd-dev at lists.macosforge.org
http://lists.macosforge.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/launchd-dev


From eskimo1 at apple.com  Tue Aug  5 01:46:55 2008
From: eskimo1 at apple.com (Quinn)
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 09:46:55 +0100
Subject: [launchd-dev] Attempting to develop a launch plist for sysmon
In-Reply-To: <fbf0108d0808011509xffa655cm488b32daabfda129@mail.gmail.com>
References: <fbf0108d0808011509xffa655cm488b32daabfda129@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <p06240800c4bce54c361e@[10.0.40.15]>

At 18:09 -0400 1/8/08, Morgan Aldridge wrote:
>I use both the OnDemand and KeepAlive keys in the hopes of supporting
>both Tiger & Leopard with this file. Will I run into any issues there
>(I've currently only tested with Leopard Server)?

As long as you still need to support 10.4.x you'd be better off just 
using "OnDemand".  It's supported, albeit deprecated, on 10.5.

At 12:51 -0700 4/8/08, Nathan Wan wrote:
>I also have a question about this.  I have been looking at the man page for
>launchd.plist on 10.4, and it does not list a KeepAlive key.  Does that mean
>that it won't work?  It doesn't seem to be working.  Is there another way to
>keep a daemon running another way?

"KeepAlive" will not work on 10.4.x.  "OnDemand" is your only choice. 
It's not as flexible, but it will do the job.

At 18:09 -0400 1/8/08, Morgan Aldridge wrote:
>Any ideas as to what might cause this? Will I have to start
>investigating sysmond's source to see if it's a dependency checking
>issue? Shouldn't the file system be available upon loading the job and
>only network services might be unavailable?

My guess is that this is related to networking.  Startup items, since 
10.4, have automatically been given a dependency on networking for 
compatibility reasons.  If you convert to launchd, you lose that 
dependency and it's likely you come up /way/ before the networking 
stack.  Lots of traditional UNIX code doesn't handle that well.

Just for the sake of debugging this, have you tried adding 
"NetworkState" to your property list (in the "KeepAlive" dictionary, 
as documented by <x-man-page://5/launchd.plist>).  This will prevent 
you from coming up until the network is up.  It's not the long-term 
solution to this problem, but it would allow you determine whether 
the problem is networking or something else.

S+E
-- 
Quinn "The Eskimo!"                    <http://www.apple.com/developer/>
Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware

From palshuth at gmail.com  Tue Aug  5 11:17:44 2008
From: palshuth at gmail.com (Peter Alshuth)
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 14:17:44 -0400
Subject: [launchd-dev] GUI Agent issue under Tiger
Message-ID: <8de47e2a0808051117o4d49286alc9260d4b49a94f0d@mail.gmail.com>

Hi all,
I have a setup with (user) agents that are communicating with one daemon.
Everything works well under 10.5 but if I run it under Tiger I got all the
problems:

I have a warning/password box in my agent  (running as a background program
with a "limited UI" for each user). I can click at a button but I cannot
type anything in the password field under Tiger (works fine in Leopard). I
read something about a login/logout hook for 10.3 or 10.4 but I thought this
is not needed if I support only 10.4 and up. Apparently, my agents are not
running under a GUI per-session bootstrap in 10.4 any more. How can I
resolve this problem? I really don't want to use a different solution for
10.4 and creating another background task that will launch my UI agent (and
the question here is how to deal with the bootstrap context). Is there any
special flag in the plist file (like the aqua session keyword for 10.5) that
I have to use for 10.4 only? The TN2083 points our that the global window
server can be reached if the agent UID matches the console user, but if I
stop and start the agent (with launchctl un/load myplistfile) all other
launches will not allow the app from connecting to the window server any
more.

Again, all the problems I have are under Tiger 10.4.11 and not Leopard.

Thanks for any help,
Peter
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From zarzycki at apple.com  Tue Aug  5 18:22:08 2008
From: zarzycki at apple.com (Dave Zarzycki)
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 18:22:08 -0700
Subject: [launchd-dev] GUI Agent issue under Tiger
In-Reply-To: <8de47e2a0808051117o4d49286alc9260d4b49a94f0d@mail.gmail.com>
References: <8de47e2a0808051117o4d49286alc9260d4b49a94f0d@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <E97A6CF6-CF9B-41EE-88EE-DE6EC87B8126@apple.com>

Peter,

GUI agent support was/is dead-on-arrival in Tiger (and fixed in  
Leopard, as you have observed).

Sorry,

davez


On Aug 5, 2008, at 11:17 AM, Peter Alshuth wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I have a setup with (user) agents that are communicating with one  
> daemon. Everything works well under 10.5 but if I run it under Tiger  
> I got all the problems:
>
> I have a warning/password box in my agent  (running as a background  
> program with a "limited UI" for each user). I can click at a button  
> but I cannot type anything in the password field under Tiger (works  
> fine in Leopard). I read something about a login/logout hook for  
> 10.3 or 10.4 but I thought this is not needed if I support only 10.4  
> and up. Apparently, my agents are not running under a GUI per- 
> session bootstrap in 10.4 any more. How can I resolve this problem?  
> I really don't want to use a different solution for 10.4 and  
> creating another background task that will launch my UI agent (and  
> the question here is how to deal with the bootstrap context). Is  
> there any special flag in the plist file (like the aqua session  
> keyword for 10.5) that I have to use for 10.4 only? The TN2083  
> points our that the global window server can be reached if the agent  
> UID matches the console user, but if I stop and start the agent  
> (with launchctl un/load myplistfile) all other launches will not  
> allow the app from connecting to the window server any more.
>
> Again, all the problems I have are under Tiger 10.4.11 and not  
> Leopard.
>
> Thanks for any help,
> Peter
> _______________________________________________
> launchd-dev mailing list
> launchd-dev at lists.macosforge.org
> http://lists.macosforge.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/launchd-dev


From eskimo1 at apple.com  Wed Aug  6 02:31:42 2008
From: eskimo1 at apple.com (Quinn)
Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 10:31:42 +0100
Subject: [launchd-dev] GUI Agent issue under Tiger
In-Reply-To: <E97A6CF6-CF9B-41EE-88EE-DE6EC87B8126@apple.com>
References: <8de47e2a0808051117o4d49286alc9260d4b49a94f0d@mail.gmail.com>
	<E97A6CF6-CF9B-41EE-88EE-DE6EC87B8126@apple.com>
Message-ID: <p06240811c4bf1fa2d2c3@[10.0.40.15]>

At 18:22 -0700 5/8/08, Dave Zarzycki wrote:
>GUI agent support was/is dead-on-arrival in Tiger (and fixed in
>Leopard, as you have observed).

TN2083 documents this problem and your options.

<http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn2005/tn2083.html>

S+E
-- 
Quinn "The Eskimo!"                    <http://www.apple.com/developer/>
Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware

From morgant at makkintosshu.com  Thu Aug  7 09:55:06 2008
From: morgant at makkintosshu.com (Morgan Aldridge)
Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 12:55:06 -0400
Subject: [launchd-dev] Attempting to develop a launch plist for
Message-ID: <fbf0108d0808070955x28c088ccu2b7156009bc15240@mail.gmail.com>

On Tue, 5 Aug 2008 09:46:55 +0100, Quinn wrote:
>
> As long as you still need to support 10.4.x you'd be better off just
> using "OnDemand".  It's supported, albeit deprecated, on 10.5.

Well, the StartupItem still works under Tiger, so I'll just drop
support for that in the launchd plist. The "KeepAlive" functionality
is much more worthwhile to me than getting rid of the StartupItem
under Tiger.

Incidentally--and a bit off-topic--is there an easy way to get the Mac
OS X/Darwin version number from a bash script so I can install either
the StartupItem of launchd plist? I think I saw one once, but the only
thing that immediately comes to mind is to parse the output of
`hostinfo` and I don't like that idea. I can ask on darwin-dev if
that's more appropriate.

> My guess is that this is related to networking.  Startup items, since
> 10.4, have automatically been given a dependency on networking for
> compatibility reasons.  If you convert to launchd, you lose that
> dependency and it's likely you come up /way/ before the networking
> stack.  Lots of traditional UNIX code doesn't handle that well.

I'll try to look at the sysmond source and see what checks the
original author was doing in terms of the networking side of things.
You're probably right that it's likely very little and/or doesn't
handle it gracefully.

> Just for the sake of debugging this, have you tried adding
> "NetworkState" to your property list (in the "KeepAlive" dictionary,
> as documented by <x-man-page://5/launchd.plist>).  This will prevent
> you from coming up until the network is up.  It's not the long-term
> solution to this problem, but it would allow you determine whether
> the problem is networking or something else.

I had looked at that key, but hadn't tried it yet. I'll give it a shot
and see what results I get.

I'm assuming--please correct me if I'm wrong--that that will kill the
sysmond process if the network goes down? If so, it's definitely not a
long term solution as sysmon is a network monitoring utility. ;)

Morgan Aldridge
---
morgant at makkintosshu.com
http://www.makkintosshu.com/

From bradleyjames at gmail.com  Sun Aug 10 20:55:07 2008
From: bradleyjames at gmail.com (Brad Reynolds)
Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 20:55:07 -0700
Subject: [launchd-dev] Accessing keychain in a launchd process
Message-ID: <916769c80808102055p643b0ea6g468f1d8e6b677f99@mail.gmail.com>

I have a ruby script that shells out a call similar to the following:

`security find-generic-password -ga test
/Users/brad/Library/Keychains/login.keychain`

When run from the command line I was prompted to give access to the
keychain item for the 'security' command (this security of this
concerns me but is out of scope for the question).  After granting
access via Keychain Access I can run the script and it no longer
prompts for the retrieval of the password.

When invoked from launchctl I see the following in Console:

"security: SecKeychainFindGenericPassword: User interaction is not allowed."

I tried adding launchd and launchctl to the list of programs that have
access to this password but I get the same error.  Any ideas on what
the program might be when run from launchctl?

-bradr

From eskimo1 at apple.com  Mon Aug 11 03:28:55 2008
From: eskimo1 at apple.com (Quinn)
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:28:55 +0100
Subject: [launchd-dev] Accessing keychain in a launchd process
In-Reply-To: <916769c80808102055p643b0ea6g468f1d8e6b677f99@mail.gmail.com>
References: <916769c80808102055p643b0ea6g468f1d8e6b677f99@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <p06240827c4c5c46072ae@[10.0.40.15]>

At 20:55 -0700 10/8/08, Brad Reynolds wrote:
>Any ideas on what the program might be when run from launchctl?

What context is your "launchd process" running in?  Is it a daemon or 
an agent?  If it's an agent, what type of agent (see Table 1 in 
TN2083 for the list of options)?

<http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn2005/tn2083.html>

I would only expect this to work from a GUI launchd agent.  Daemons 
and other agents run outside of the GUI login context, and thus can't 
safely display UI.

S+E
-- 
Quinn "The Eskimo!"                    <http://www.apple.com/developer/>
Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware

From bradleyjames at gmail.com  Mon Aug 11 20:26:41 2008
From: bradleyjames at gmail.com (Brad Reynolds)
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:26:41 -0700
Subject: [launchd-dev] Accessing keychain in a launchd process
In-Reply-To: <p06240827c4c5c46072ae@10.0.40.15>
References: <916769c80808102055p643b0ea6g468f1d8e6b677f99@mail.gmail.com>
	<p06240827c4c5c46072ae@10.0.40.15>
Message-ID: <916769c80808112026j2231192fra40b336ad478c828@mail.gmail.com>

Thanks for the reply Quinn.  I haven't seen that tech note.  I've got
some reading to do.

But to clarify, I don't necessarily want it to run in a GUI context.
I'm just wanting to authorize this script, when run via launchd, to
access the keychain.  A symptom of the my current problem is that it
can't display the GUI.  This occurs because the script doesn't have
access to the keychain.  I'd like to give it access beforehand so that
it is authorized and the GUI is avoided altogether.  When I run the
script from the command line it doesn't prompt for the password since
I've given it access.  But when run from launchd it tries to prompt,
thus the problem.

I'll give the document a read and if I can't figure it out I'll reply
again.  Thanks.

-bradr

On Mon, Aug 11, 2008 at 3:28 AM, Quinn <eskimo1 at apple.com> wrote:
> At 20:55 -0700 10/8/08, Brad Reynolds wrote:
>>Any ideas on what the program might be when run from launchctl?
>
> What context is your "launchd process" running in?  Is it a daemon or
> an agent?  If it's an agent, what type of agent (see Table 1 in
> TN2083 for the list of options)?
>
> <http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn2005/tn2083.html>
>
> I would only expect this to work from a GUI launchd agent.  Daemons
> and other agents run outside of the GUI login context, and thus can't
> safely display UI.
>
> S+E
> --
> Quinn "The Eskimo!"                    <http://www.apple.com/developer/>
> Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware
> _______________________________________________
> launchd-dev mailing list
> launchd-dev at lists.macosforge.org
> http://lists.macosforge.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/launchd-dev
>

From benjaminburke at me.com  Tue Aug 12 23:36:34 2008
From: benjaminburke at me.com (Benjamin Burke)
Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 02:36:34 -0400
Subject: [launchd-dev] WatchPaths Indicator of triggering path?
References: <8CA70744-0895-430D-BAC3-4020D54D446C@me.com>
Message-ID: <5AE18BE8-9DF1-41FF-95A3-978CB02065F7@me.com>

Hi,

When an agent is run as the result of a watched path being modified,  
does launchd provide the agent with the path that triggered it? For  
example, imagine that I have the following plist which identifies 3  
watchpaths:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd 
">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>Label</key>
	<string>com.example.test</string>
	<key>ProgramArguments</key>
	<array>
		<string>/Users/tester/patchWatcher.pl</string>
	</array>
	<key>WatchPaths</key>
	<array>
		<string>/some/path</string>
		<string>/return/of/the/path</string>
		<string>/revenge/of/path</string>
	</array>
</dict>
</plist>

Is there some way that launchd tells my program which of the 3 watch  
paths triggered the event? Is there some hidden "%s" program argument  
or something like that. I checked the environment variables and didn't  
see anything. I checked the man pages and couldn't find anything.

Second, hopefully easier question: Do the terms "launch services" and  
"launchd" refer to the same thing?

Thanks,
Ben Burke


From kvv at apple.com  Wed Aug 13 00:37:53 2008
From: kvv at apple.com (Kevin Van Vechten)
Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:37:53 -0700
Subject: [launchd-dev] WatchPaths Indicator of triggering path?
In-Reply-To: <5AE18BE8-9DF1-41FF-95A3-978CB02065F7@me.com>
References: <8CA70744-0895-430D-BAC3-4020D54D446C@me.com>
	<5AE18BE8-9DF1-41FF-95A3-978CB02065F7@me.com>
Message-ID: <387F207A-AF45-43B4-AE10-8F60EDCEA36E@apple.com>


On Aug 12, 2008, at 11:36 PM, Benjamin Burke wrote:

> When an agent is run as the result of a watched path being modified,
> does launchd provide the agent with the path that triggered it? For
> example, imagine that I have the following plist which identifies 3
> watchpaths:
[...]
> 	<key>WatchPaths</key>
> 	<array>
> 		<string>/some/path</string>
> 		<string>/return/of/the/path</string>
> 		<string>/revenge/of/path</string>
> 	</array>

No, I don't think the path that triggered the launch is communicated  
to the process.  Seems like a reasonable enhancement request, but the  
files may be modified after the process is launched and it's the  
agent's responsibility to watch for that.

> Second, hopefully easier question: Do the terms "launch services" and
> "launchd" refer to the same thing?

LaunchServices refers to the high level framework for opening  
applications and documents with applications.  On Leopard,  
LaunchServices uses launchd to create new processes.

- Kevin

From bradleyjames at gmail.com  Sun Aug 17 09:46:36 2008
From: bradleyjames at gmail.com (Brad Reynolds)
Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2008 09:46:36 -0700
Subject: [launchd-dev] Accessing keychain in a launchd process
In-Reply-To: <916769c80808112026j2231192fra40b336ad478c828@mail.gmail.com>
References: <916769c80808102055p643b0ea6g468f1d8e6b677f99@mail.gmail.com>
	<p06240827c4c5c46072ae@10.0.40.15>
	<916769c80808112026j2231192fra40b336ad478c828@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <916769c80808170946i750a3f04s80e67c11ba1c4177@mail.gmail.com>

The problem was that I wasn't specifying the correct sessionType when
loading the agent via launchctl (i.e. launchctl load -S Aqua
myagent.plist).  Once I did that I had the appropriate context to
access the keychain in.  Thanks for the help!

-bradr

On Mon, Aug 11, 2008 at 8:26 PM, Brad Reynolds <bradleyjames at gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks for the reply Quinn.  I haven't seen that tech note.  I've got
> some reading to do.
>
> But to clarify, I don't necessarily want it to run in a GUI context.
> I'm just wanting to authorize this script, when run via launchd, to
> access the keychain.  A symptom of the my current problem is that it
> can't display the GUI.  This occurs because the script doesn't have
> access to the keychain.  I'd like to give it access beforehand so that
> it is authorized and the GUI is avoided altogether.  When I run the
> script from the command line it doesn't prompt for the password since
> I've given it access.  But when run from launchd it tries to prompt,
> thus the problem.
>
> I'll give the document a read and if I can't figure it out I'll reply
> again.  Thanks.
>
> -bradr
>
> On Mon, Aug 11, 2008 at 3:28 AM, Quinn <eskimo1 at apple.com> wrote:
>> At 20:55 -0700 10/8/08, Brad Reynolds wrote:
>>>Any ideas on what the program might be when run from launchctl?
>>
>> What context is your "launchd process" running in?  Is it a daemon or
>> an agent?  If it's an agent, what type of agent (see Table 1 in
>> TN2083 for the list of options)?
>>
>> <http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn2005/tn2083.html>
>>
>> I would only expect this to work from a GUI launchd agent.  Daemons
>> and other agents run outside of the GUI login context, and thus can't
>> safely display UI.
>>
>> S+E
>> --
>> Quinn "The Eskimo!"                    <http://www.apple.com/developer/>
>> Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware
>> _______________________________________________
>> launchd-dev mailing list
>> launchd-dev at lists.macosforge.org
>> http://lists.macosforge.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/launchd-dev
>>
>

From benjaminburke at me.com  Mon Aug 18 11:56:46 2008
From: benjaminburke at me.com (Benjamin Burke)
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:56:46 -0400
Subject: [launchd-dev] WatchPaths Indicator of triggering path?
In-Reply-To: <387F207A-AF45-43B4-AE10-8F60EDCEA36E@apple.com>
References: <8CA70744-0895-430D-BAC3-4020D54D446C@me.com>
	<5AE18BE8-9DF1-41FF-95A3-978CB02065F7@me.com>
	<387F207A-AF45-43B4-AE10-8F60EDCEA36E@apple.com>
Message-ID: <CD099F88-682F-4645-8C9D-71FC3F9887BF@me.com>

On Aug 13, 2008, at 3:37 AM, Kevin Van Vechten wrote:
> On Aug 12, 2008, at 11:36 PM, Benjamin Burke wrote:
>> When an agent is run as the result of a watched path being modified,
>> does launchd provide the agent with the path that triggered it? For
>> example, imagine that I have the following plist which identifies 3
>> watchpaths [...]
>
> No, I don't think the path that triggered the launch is communicated  
> to the process.  Seems like a reasonable enhancement request, but  
> the files may be modified after the process is launched and it's the  
> agent's responsibility to watch for that.


Thanks. I finally got around to submitting this as an enhancement  
request (radar #6156218). I tried to come up with a patch myself, but  
I keep crashing in job_start_child... I'm afraid that I'm a bit out of  
my depth at the moment.

From tim at sbdev.net  Tue Aug 19 02:01:48 2008
From: tim at sbdev.net (Tim Schooley)
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:01:48 +0100
Subject: [launchd-dev] LaunchAgent Logging path.
Message-ID: <20080819100148.828e11ec.tim@sbdev.net>

Hi all!

I can't seem to get my LaunchAgent to log to a user-specific location.

For example, the following doesn't work (no log file is created):

    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>~/mylog.log</string>

Is there any way for each instance of the LaunchAgent to have its own log
file?

Thanks for any help!

Kind regards,

Tim


From zarzycki at apple.com  Tue Aug 19 08:27:29 2008
From: zarzycki at apple.com (Dave Zarzycki)
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2008 08:27:29 -0700
Subject: [launchd-dev] LaunchAgent Logging path.
In-Reply-To: <20080819100148.828e11ec.tim@sbdev.net>
References: <20080819100148.828e11ec.tim@sbdev.net>
Message-ID: <07D689C8-6771-4476-A826-8B060598C823@apple.com>

Tim,

Globbing ("man 3 glob") is not yet supported for StandardOutPath or  
StandardErrorPath. Please strongly consider using the syslog(3) or  
asl_log(3) family of API.

davez



On Aug 19, 2008, at 2:01 AM, Tim Schooley wrote:

> Hi all!
>
> I can't seem to get my LaunchAgent to log to a user-specific location.
>
> For example, the following doesn't work (no log file is created):
>
>    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
>    <string>~/mylog.log</string>
>
> Is there any way for each instance of the LaunchAgent to have its  
> own log
> file?
>
> Thanks for any help!
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Tim
>
> _______________________________________________
> launchd-dev mailing list
> launchd-dev at lists.macosforge.org
> http://lists.macosforge.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/launchd-dev


From trodemaster at gmail.com  Tue Aug 19 12:02:50 2008
From: trodemaster at gmail.com (Blake Garner)
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:02:50 -0700
Subject: [launchd-dev] make sure process starts before login window
Message-ID: <55a5c7c50808191202j5d8e6aa8s7e40b674137290c9@mail.gmail.com>

I'm looking for suggestions or examples on how to make sure a script
runs before login window starts. Any ideas on how to make that happen
within launchd?

Thanks,
Blake

From eskimo1 at apple.com  Tue Aug 19 14:49:29 2008
From: eskimo1 at apple.com (Quinn)
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:49:29 +0100
Subject: [launchd-dev] make sure process starts before login window
In-Reply-To: <55a5c7c50808191202j5d8e6aa8s7e40b674137290c9@mail.gmail.com>
References: <55a5c7c50808191202j5d8e6aa8s7e40b674137290c9@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <p06240803c4d0ee4de434@[10.0.40.15]>

At 12:02 -0700 19/8/08, Blake Garner wrote:
>I'm looking for suggestions or examples on how to make sure a script
>runs before login window starts. Any ideas on how to make that happen
>within launchd?

It depends on what you mean by "before login window starts".  Most 
folks who ask this question want to run before the user logs in [1], 
either before or after their home directory is mounted, and want to 
hold up login while they do their stuff.  If that's the case then the 
best approach is to use an Authorization Plug-in.

<http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Security/Reference/AuthorizationPluginRef/index.html>

If you'd like to explore this option, drop me a line.  I have a draft 
technote that I can send your way.

OTOH if you really want to run before loginwindow is /started/ then 
things get a /lot/ harder.  The problem is that in the launchd world 
we boot the system via demand pull.  That is, we launch loginwindow 
and then, as loginwindow requests services, we start those services. 
So the only way to run before loginwindow is to actually patch the 
system to not launch loginwindow in the first place.  You could do 
this by munging <x-man-page://5/ttys> but... yeah, that gets very 
ugly very fast.  It might be appropriate for a managed site but it's 
certainly not something you'd want to do in shrinkwrap software.

S+E
-- 
Quinn "The Eskimo!"                    <http://www.apple.com/developer/>
Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware

[1] Including automatic logins.

From tim at sbdev.net  Wed Aug 20 01:20:33 2008
From: tim at sbdev.net (Tim Schooley)
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:20:33 +0100
Subject: [launchd-dev] LaunchAgent causing bug message in logs?
Message-ID: <20080820092033.b2c103f6.tim@sbdev.net>

Hi all,

My LaunchAgent appears to cause the following message to be displayed in the
log file when it is loaded via launchctl (also note that the agent is for
Aqua sessions only):

com.apple.launchd[553] (com.company.agent): Bug: launchd_core_logic.c:5025
(23585):22: false

Normally, I would pull the source from the site, and grep for stuff to hunt
down the cause of this. But I can't find a way of pulling the SVN source :(

I did have a look through the source browser, but without knowing which
version of the code I'm using, I'm a little bit stuck.

Should this message worry me/you?

Kind regards,

Tim


From zarzycki at apple.com  Wed Aug 20 07:48:58 2008
From: zarzycki at apple.com (Dave Zarzycki)
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:48:58 -0700
Subject: [launchd-dev] LaunchAgent causing bug message in logs?
In-Reply-To: <20080820092033.b2c103f6.tim@sbdev.net>
References: <20080820092033.b2c103f6.tim@sbdev.net>
Message-ID: <4A8AA886-FA29-4298-8CBF-53A0A543CAF3@apple.com>

Tim,

Are you sure that you copied/pasted the log line exactly? Version  
23585 of launchd doesn't have anything on line 5025 of  
launchd_core_logic.c that would generate this message. In any case, if  
you could provide a copy of your property-list file, we could probably  
diagnose this faster.

davez


On Aug 20, 2008, at 1:20 AM, Tim Schooley wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> My LaunchAgent appears to cause the following message to be  
> displayed in the
> log file when it is loaded via launchctl (also note that the agent  
> is for
> Aqua sessions only):
>
> com.apple.launchd[553] (com.company.agent): Bug:  
> launchd_core_logic.c:5025
> (23585):22: false
>
> Normally, I would pull the source from the site, and grep for stuff  
> to hunt
> down the cause of this. But I can't find a way of pulling the SVN  
> source :(
>
> I did have a look through the source browser, but without knowing  
> which
> version of the code I'm using, I'm a little bit stuck.
>
> Should this message worry me/you?
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Tim
>
> _______________________________________________
> launchd-dev mailing list
> launchd-dev at lists.macosforge.org
> http://lists.macosforge.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/launchd-dev


From tim at sbdev.net  Wed Aug 20 07:56:54 2008
From: tim at sbdev.net (Tim Schooley)
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:56:54 +0100
Subject: [launchd-dev] LaunchAgent causing bug message in logs?
In-Reply-To: <4A8AA886-FA29-4298-8CBF-53A0A543CAF3@apple.com>
References: <20080820092033.b2c103f6.tim@sbdev.net>
	<4A8AA886-FA29-4298-8CBF-53A0A543CAF3@apple.com>
Message-ID: <20080820155654.7f435b39.tim@sbdev.net>

Hi Dave,

On Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:48:58 -0700, Dave Zarzycki wrote:
> Tim,
> 
> Are you sure that you copied/pasted the log line exactly?

All minus the com.mycompany.agent bit (I'm just protecting my job by hiding
internal details).

> Version  
> 23585 of launchd doesn't have anything on line 5025 of  
> launchd_core_logic.c that would generate this message. In any case, if  
> you could provide a copy of your property-list file, we could probably  
> diagnose this faster.

Righto:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.mycompany.agent</string>
    <key>OnDemand</key>
    <false/>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <dict>
        <key>SuccessfullExit</key>
        <false/>
    </dict>
    <key>LimitLoadToSessionType</key>
    <string>Aqua</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>MyProg</string>
    </array>
</dict>
</plist>

Hope this helps. Please let me know if there is anything else I can do to
help.

Kind regards,

Tim


From tim at sbdev.net  Wed Aug 20 08:20:29 2008
From: tim at sbdev.net (Tim Schooley)
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:20:29 +0100
Subject: [launchd-dev] LaunchAgent causing bug message in logs?
In-Reply-To: <F8EA6930-BFD6-4F61-AB2A-967913A2A477@apple.com>
References: <20080820092033.b2c103f6.tim@sbdev.net>
	<4A8AA886-FA29-4298-8CBF-53A0A543CAF3@apple.com>
	<20080820155654.7f435b39.tim@sbdev.net>
	<F8EA6930-BFD6-4F61-AB2A-967913A2A477@apple.com>
Message-ID: <20080820162029.317a8070.tim@sbdev.net>

Hi Dave,

On Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:11:12 -0700, Dave Zarzycki wrote:
> The above contains a typo. SuccessfulExit contains one 'l', not two.  
> Also, please note that by setting OnDemand to false, that makes  
> RunAtLoad to true redundant. The same is true of the conditional  
> KeepAlive (it also is redundant). Please also note that OnDemand was  
> deprecated in favor of KeepAlive == true (and therefore making launchd  
> more consistent about the default value of boolean keys).
 
Thanks for the comments - I've updated the plist accordingly.

> If you want to file a bug on this, we'd appreciate it.

I'll get on the case.

Kind regards,

Tim


From tim at sbdev.net  Wed Aug 20 08:30:49 2008
From: tim at sbdev.net (Tim Schooley)
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:30:49 +0100
Subject: [launchd-dev] LaunchAgent causing bug message in logs?
In-Reply-To: <20080820162029.317a8070.tim@sbdev.net>
References: <20080820092033.b2c103f6.tim@sbdev.net>
	<4A8AA886-FA29-4298-8CBF-53A0A543CAF3@apple.com>
	<20080820155654.7f435b39.tim@sbdev.net>
	<F8EA6930-BFD6-4F61-AB2A-967913A2A477@apple.com>
	<20080820162029.317a8070.tim@sbdev.net>
Message-ID: <20080820163049.a384dbc8.tim@sbdev.net>

Hi again,

On Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:20:29 +0100, Tim Schooley wrote:
> > If you want to file a bug on this, we'd appreciate it.
> 
> I'll get on the case.

It actually appears to have gone, after updating the plist file. So it was
probably complaining about a contradiction of keys or something (?).

Cheers,

Tim


From eskimo1 at apple.com  Wed Aug 20 08:42:47 2008
From: eskimo1 at apple.com (Quinn)
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:42:47 +0100
Subject: [launchd-dev] make sure process starts before login window
In-Reply-To: <p06240803c4d0ee4de434@[10.0.40.15]>
References: <55a5c7c50808191202j5d8e6aa8s7e40b674137290c9@mail.gmail.com>
	<p06240803c4d0ee4de434@[10.0.40.15]>
Message-ID: <p06240805c4d1eba4ee4c@[10.0.40.15]>

At 22:49 +0100 19/8/08, Quinn wrote:
>You could do this by munging <x-man-page://5/ttys> but... yeah, that gets very
>ugly very fast.

And just to prove my point, apparently the /etc/ttys hack doesn't 
work on 10.5 and later.  The equivalent hack is munging 
"/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.loginwindow.plist".  Not 
that this is any more sensible (-:

S+E
-- 
Quinn "The Eskimo!"                    <http://www.apple.com/developer/>
Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware

From shawnce at gmail.com  Wed Aug 27 08:08:01 2008
From: shawnce at gmail.com (Shawn Erickson)
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 08:08:01 -0700
Subject: [launchd-dev] Stopping and uninstalling a LaunchDaemon job
Message-ID: <d73dcbd60808270808w7e5fd3e9gb800fc9d169d8957@mail.gmail.com>

Looking for opinion on the best way to manage the uninstall of a
launchd job that lives under /Library/LaunchDaemon. The uninstall
process is currently planned to be triggered by an button/option
displayed on one of the tabs of our system preferences plug-in. If the
user clicks this we get authorization rights and attempt to do the
uninstall that is needed.

We have no issues using the rights we are granted to remove files
owned by root, etc. but we cannot use launchctl to stop the
LaunchDaemon because the uninstall task runs as the current user and
not as root (aka doesn't see the top level launchd instance).

Note this is a temporary issue in an alpha version of our product
since we plan to begin utilizing an IPC mechanism to have our
preference plug-in, etc. connect with our launch daemon. When this is
up an going we can message the daemon directly to get it to do aspects
of the uninstall and shutdown (since it is running as root).

In other words this is just a quick uninstall solution for alpha and
something that will be replaced... so not looking for something to
fancy.

-Shawn

From eskimo1 at apple.com  Wed Aug 27 08:15:55 2008
From: eskimo1 at apple.com (Quinn)
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:15:55 +0100
Subject: [launchd-dev] Stopping and uninstalling a LaunchDaemon job
In-Reply-To: <d73dcbd60808270808w7e5fd3e9gb800fc9d169d8957@mail.gmail.com>
References: <d73dcbd60808270808w7e5fd3e9gb800fc9d169d8957@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <p0624082cc4db2004bd17@[10.0.40.15]>

At 8:08 -0700 27/8/08, Shawn Erickson wrote:
>We have no issues using the rights we are granted to remove files
>owned by root, etc. but we cannot use launchctl to stop the
>LaunchDaemon because the uninstall task runs as the current user and
>not as root (aka doesn't see the top level launchd instance).

I'm confused.  To remove a file from /Library/LaunchDaemons you have 
to be running as root.  Why can't you sublaunch launchctl from that 
context?

S+E
-- 
Quinn "The Eskimo!"                    <http://www.apple.com/developer/>
Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware

From shawnce at gmail.com  Wed Aug 27 08:24:34 2008
From: shawnce at gmail.com (Shawn Erickson)
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 08:24:34 -0700
Subject: [launchd-dev] Stopping and uninstalling a LaunchDaemon job
In-Reply-To: <p0624082cc4db2004bd17@10.0.40.15>
References: <d73dcbd60808270808w7e5fd3e9gb800fc9d169d8957@mail.gmail.com>
	<p0624082cc4db2004bd17@10.0.40.15>
Message-ID: <d73dcbd60808270824x2ede56f8gd1ff4f8eb48514c0@mail.gmail.com>

On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 8:15 AM, Quinn <eskimo1 at apple.com> wrote:
> At 8:08 -0700 27/8/08, Shawn Erickson wrote:
>>We have no issues using the rights we are granted to remove files
>>owned by root, etc. but we cannot use launchctl to stop the
>>LaunchDaemon because the uninstall task runs as the current user and
>>not as root (aka doesn't see the top level launchd instance).
>
> I'm confused.  To remove a file from /Library/LaunchDaemons you have
> to be running as root.  Why can't you sublaunch launchctl from that
> context?

Sorry the guy that has been playing around with this isn't in just yet
so I don't know the exact specifics but... It is my understanding he
is using authorization services to run a script and that script is
removing files, etc. just fine but launchctl running from under that
script cannot see the top level launchctl instance to remove the
launch daemon job. I believe he used id in the script as it logged the
current user.

I will pull up the code he is playing with, if I can find it, or wait
until he gets in...

-Shawn

From eskimo1 at apple.com  Wed Aug 27 08:36:43 2008
From: eskimo1 at apple.com (Quinn)
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:36:43 +0100
Subject: [launchd-dev] Stopping and uninstalling a LaunchDaemon job
In-Reply-To: <d73dcbd60808270824x2ede56f8gd1ff4f8eb48514c0@mail.gmail.com>
References: <d73dcbd60808270808w7e5fd3e9gb800fc9d169d8957@mail.gmail.com>
	<p0624082cc4db2004bd17@10.0.40.15>
	<d73dcbd60808270824x2ede56f8gd1ff4f8eb48514c0@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <p06240831c4db23838efa@[10.0.40.15]>

At 8:24 -0700 27/8/08, Shawn Erickson wrote:
>Sorry the guy that has been playing around with this isn't in just yet
>so I don't know the exact specifics but... It is my understanding he
>is using authorization services to run a script and that script is
>removing files, etc. just fine but launchctl running from under that
>script cannot see the top level launchctl instance to remove the
>launch daemon job. I believe he used id in the script as it logged the
>current user.

OK, this sounds like one of the standard gotchas with 
AuthorizationExecutionWithPrivileges; it runs the resulting program 
with EUID == 0 but RUID inherited from the process that called AEWP 
<rdar://problem/4098710>, and launchctl is getting confused by the 
RUID.

If you were writing real code I would recommend:

1. don't use a script, use a C-based tool

2. in that tool call setuid(0) to force the RUID to 0

However, given that you're just putting in a temporary hack then I'll 
recommend the following trick:

$ chroot -u 0 / launchctl <args>

which converts an EUID == 0 / RUID != 0 context into a EUID == RUID 
== 0.  Sneaky huh?

IMPORTANT:  Please don't leave these hacks in your production code. 
In my experience "temporary + work == permanent".

S+E
-- 
Quinn "The Eskimo!"                    <http://www.apple.com/developer/>
Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware

From shawnce at gmail.com  Wed Aug 27 09:11:13 2008
From: shawnce at gmail.com (Shawn Erickson)
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:11:13 -0700
Subject: [launchd-dev] Stopping and uninstalling a LaunchDaemon job
In-Reply-To: <p06240831c4db23838efa@10.0.40.15>
References: <d73dcbd60808270808w7e5fd3e9gb800fc9d169d8957@mail.gmail.com>
	<p0624082cc4db2004bd17@10.0.40.15>
	<d73dcbd60808270824x2ede56f8gd1ff4f8eb48514c0@mail.gmail.com>
	<p06240831c4db23838efa@10.0.40.15>
Message-ID: <d73dcbd60808270911vddc3119vf0692279847530f6@mail.gmail.com>

On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 8:36 AM, Quinn <eskimo1 at apple.com> wrote:
> At 8:24 -0700 27/8/08, Shawn Erickson wrote:
>>Sorry the guy that has been playing around with this isn't in just yet
>>so I don't know the exact specifics but... It is my understanding he
>>is using authorization services to run a script and that script is
>>removing files, etc. just fine but launchctl running from under that
>>script cannot see the top level launchctl instance to remove the
>>launch daemon job. I believe he used id in the script as it logged the
>>current user.
>
> OK, this sounds like one of the standard gotchas with
> AuthorizationExecutionWithPrivileges; it runs the resulting program
> with EUID == 0 but RUID inherited from the process that called AEWP
> <rdar://problem/4098710>, and launchctl is getting confused by the
> RUID.

Ah that likely explains what he saw. Thanks

> If you were writing real code I would recommend:
>
> 1. don't use a script, use a C-based tool
>
> 2. in that tool call setuid(0) to force the RUID to 0
>
> However, given that you're just putting in a temporary hack then I'll
> recommend the following trick:
>
> $ chroot -u 0 / launchctl <args>
>
> which converts an EUID == 0 / RUID != 0 context into a EUID == RUID
> == 0.  Sneaky huh?

Interesting. Thanks again.

> IMPORTANT:  Please don't leave these hacks in your production code.
> In my experience "temporary + work == permanent".

Yup they have a way of doing that luckily this component is throw
away, at least in this form.

-Shawn

From kcrwfrd at gmail.com  Wed Aug 27 11:28:27 2008
From: kcrwfrd at gmail.com (Crawford Kyle)
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:28:27 -0400
Subject: [launchd-dev] Restrict so only one instance runs
Message-ID: <7E2D37AE-1C47-4020-A6E8-7128365F1F90@gmail.com>

Hello,

I often need to schedule scripts to run at an interval, but I don't  
know how long that script will take to complete and I don't want the  
script to run again at its normal interval unless the script isn't  
running.

I've done this with pid files and grepping through ps lists to exit  
the script if another instance is running, but I was wondering if  
there is something built into launchd to handle this.

I tried combining LaunchOnlyOnce with StartInterval, but with  
LaunchOnlyOnce, it seems that the job gets unloaded as soon as it  
runs, so the interval becomes pretty meaningless.

Is there a way to do this with launchd?  Should there be a way to do  
this with launchd?

Thanks,

Kyle


From zarzycki at apple.com  Wed Aug 27 12:29:19 2008
From: zarzycki at apple.com (Dave Zarzycki)
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:29:19 -0700
Subject: [launchd-dev] Restrict so only one instance runs
In-Reply-To: <7E2D37AE-1C47-4020-A6E8-7128365F1F90@gmail.com>
References: <7E2D37AE-1C47-4020-A6E8-7128365F1F90@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <9C2E6588-9126-4CDD-A3B8-A71271E3AD90@apple.com>


On Aug 27, 2008, at 11:28 AM, Crawford Kyle wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I often need to schedule scripts to run at an interval, but I don't
> know how long that script will take to complete and I don't want the
> script to run again at its normal interval unless the script isn't
> running.
>
> I've done this with pid files and grepping through ps lists to exit
> the script if another instance is running, but I was wondering if
> there is something built into launchd to handle this.
>
> I tried combining LaunchOnlyOnce with StartInterval, but with
> LaunchOnlyOnce, it seems that the job gets unloaded as soon as it
> runs, so the interval becomes pretty meaningless.
>
> Is there a way to do this with launchd?  Should there be a way to do
> this with launchd?


What you want is implicit with launchd. LaunchOnlyOnce will eventually  
get renamed to "HopefullyNeverExits" Just setup a StartInterval and  
you're set. If the job is still running, launchd will not start a  
second copy.

davez


From kcrwfrd at gmail.com  Wed Aug 27 16:42:07 2008
From: kcrwfrd at gmail.com (Crawford Kyle)
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:42:07 -0400
Subject: [launchd-dev] Restrict so only one instance runs
In-Reply-To: <9C2E6588-9126-4CDD-A3B8-A71271E3AD90@apple.com>
References: <7E2D37AE-1C47-4020-A6E8-7128365F1F90@gmail.com>
	<9C2E6588-9126-4CDD-A3B8-A71271E3AD90@apple.com>
Message-ID: <CB690050-3A6F-4073-A42B-8C79A23B8CC3@gmail.com>


On Aug 27, 2008, at 3:29 PM, Dave Zarzycki wrote:

>
> On Aug 27, 2008, at 11:28 AM, Crawford Kyle wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> I often need to schedule scripts to run at an interval, but I don't
>> know how long that script will take to complete and I don't want the
>> script to run again at its normal interval unless the script isn't
>> running.
>>
>> I've done this with pid files and grepping through ps lists to exit
>> the script if another instance is running, but I was wondering if
>> there is something built into launchd to handle this.
>>
>> I tried combining LaunchOnlyOnce with StartInterval, but with
>> LaunchOnlyOnce, it seems that the job gets unloaded as soon as it
>> runs, so the interval becomes pretty meaningless.
>>
>> Is there a way to do this with launchd?  Should there be a way to do
>> this with launchd?
>
>
> What you want is implicit with launchd. LaunchOnlyOnce will  
> eventually get renamed to "HopefullyNeverExits" Just setup a  
> StartInterval and you're set. If the job is still running, launchd  
> will not start a second copy.

Thanks Dave. I must be missing something.  Here is my job plist.  The  
shell script is just a test that logs to system log.

I see a message in system log only once though. And the job no longer  
shows in launchctl list after it runs.

I tried this with and without OnDemand.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd 
">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
     <key>Label</key>
     <string>com.company.test</string>
     <key>ProgramArguments</key>
     <array>
         <string>/etc/testscript.sh</string>
     </array>
     <key>StartInterval</key>
     <integer>30</integer>
     <key>LaunchOnlyOnce</key>
     <true/>
</dict>
</plist>


From zarzycki at apple.com  Wed Aug 27 17:07:19 2008
From: zarzycki at apple.com (Dave Zarzycki)
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:07:19 -0700
Subject: [launchd-dev] Restrict so only one instance runs
In-Reply-To: <CB690050-3A6F-4073-A42B-8C79A23B8CC3@gmail.com>
References: <7E2D37AE-1C47-4020-A6E8-7128365F1F90@gmail.com>
	<9C2E6588-9126-4CDD-A3B8-A71271E3AD90@apple.com>
	<CB690050-3A6F-4073-A42B-8C79A23B8CC3@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <AA3D1D4C-7099-4F05-B051-D94FEBD23201@apple.com>


On Aug 27, 2008, at 4:42 PM, Crawford Kyle wrote:

>
> On Aug 27, 2008, at 3:29 PM, Dave Zarzycki wrote:
>
>>
>> On Aug 27, 2008, at 11:28 AM, Crawford Kyle wrote:
>>
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> I often need to schedule scripts to run at an interval, but I don't
>>> know how long that script will take to complete and I don't want the
>>> script to run again at its normal interval unless the script isn't
>>> running.
>>>
>>> I've done this with pid files and grepping through ps lists to exit
>>> the script if another instance is running, but I was wondering if
>>> there is something built into launchd to handle this.
>>>
>>> I tried combining LaunchOnlyOnce with StartInterval, but with
>>> LaunchOnlyOnce, it seems that the job gets unloaded as soon as it
>>> runs, so the interval becomes pretty meaningless.
>>>
>>> Is there a way to do this with launchd?  Should there be a way to do
>>> this with launchd?
>>
>>
>> What you want is implicit with launchd. LaunchOnlyOnce will  
>> eventually get renamed to "HopefullyNeverExits" Just setup a  
>> StartInterval and you're set. If the job is still running, launchd  
>> will not start a second copy.
>
> Thanks Dave. I must be missing something.  Here is my job plist.   
> The shell script is just a test that logs to system log.
>
> I see a message in system log only once though. And the job no  
> longer shows in launchctl list after it runs.
>
> I tried this with and without OnDemand.
>
> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd 
> ">
> <plist version="1.0">
> <dict>
>    <key>Label</key>
>    <string>com.company.test</string>
>    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
>    <array>
>        <string>/etc/testscript.sh</string>
>    </array>
>    <key>StartInterval</key>
>    <integer>30</integer>
>    <key>LaunchOnlyOnce</key>
>    <true/>
> </dict>
> </plist>



Delete the "LaunchOnlyOnce" key.

davez

From kcrwfrd at gmail.com  Wed Aug 27 18:21:27 2008
From: kcrwfrd at gmail.com (Crawford Kyle)
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:21:27 -0400
Subject: [launchd-dev] Restrict so only one instance runs
In-Reply-To: <AA3D1D4C-7099-4F05-B051-D94FEBD23201@apple.com>
References: <7E2D37AE-1C47-4020-A6E8-7128365F1F90@gmail.com>
	<9C2E6588-9126-4CDD-A3B8-A71271E3AD90@apple.com>
	<CB690050-3A6F-4073-A42B-8C79A23B8CC3@gmail.com>
	<AA3D1D4C-7099-4F05-B051-D94FEBD23201@apple.com>
Message-ID: <08B0C655-8939-40DE-A4C4-79C984626D93@gmail.com>

On Aug 27, 2008, at 8:07 PM, Dave Zarzycki wrote:

> Delete the "LaunchOnlyOnce" key.
>
> davez

That default behavior really threw me off.  Doh.   Thanks Dave : )

From ian at slumbrparty.com  Thu Aug 28 01:12:19 2008
From: ian at slumbrparty.com (Ian)
Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 01:12:19 -0700
Subject: [launchd-dev] can i do this with launchd? (on-demand auto-restart
	daemons)
Message-ID: <31003eee0808280112m343ac955hfc273c1918e63444@mail.gmail.com>

i am interested in writing a cocoa front end to hellanzb. it is a python
program that has a daemon mode. you interact with it via a tcp socket. i
want to use launchd to control the daemon.

1. it should start when the cocoa GUI is started (either manually or via a
startup item)
2. if the daemon dies for whatever reason, launchd should restart it
3. if the GUI is closed, the daemon should be shut off without having it
restart.

thank you for your help.

ian
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From dave-ml at dribin.org  Thu Aug 28 21:36:04 2008
From: dave-ml at dribin.org (Dave Dribin)
Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:36:04 -0500
Subject: [launchd-dev] No pboard server?
Message-ID: <37F8DB7C-7FF0-4C70-8699-45DE1E864280@dribin.org>

Hi all,

This is sort of a last ditch effort before I re-install....  A few  
hours ago, copy and paste stopped working on my MBP (running 10.5.4).   
Sure enough pboard was dead.  I decided to reboot, just in case  
anything else got messed up.  Now it will not start at all.  Running  
"launchctl list" does not show it, and if I try and explicitly list  
it, I get the following error message:

   % launchctl list com.apple.pboard
   launch_msg(): Socket is not connected

I get the same error message if I try to load com.apple.pboard.plist.   
I've also noticed that Apache and ssh-agent also are no longer  
starting, either, so something is definitely wonky with some of the  
system daemons.  There are probably other critical daemons not  
starting, I imagine, too.

Note: there's plenty of free disk space (32 GB).  Any other idea? I'm  
nearly ready to re-install at this point.

Thanks,

-Dave


From dave-ml at dribin.org  Thu Aug 28 22:18:54 2008
From: dave-ml at dribin.org (Dave Dribin)
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:18:54 -0500
Subject: [launchd-dev] No pboard server?
In-Reply-To: <37F8DB7C-7FF0-4C70-8699-45DE1E864280@dribin.org>
References: <37F8DB7C-7FF0-4C70-8699-45DE1E864280@dribin.org>
Message-ID: <3CB1A1EE-357E-4B0D-AC5D-8F4AAFCC3E96@dribin.org>

On Aug 28, 2008, at 11:36 PM, Dave Dribin wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> This is sort of a last ditch effort before I re-install....  A few
> hours ago, copy and paste stopped working on my MBP (running 10.5.4).
> Sure enough pboard was dead.  I decided to reboot, just in case
> anything else got messed up.  Now it will not start at all.  Running
> "launchctl list" does not show it, and if I try and explicitly list
> it, I get the following error message:
>
>   % launchctl list com.apple.pboard
>   launch_msg(): Socket is not connected

Well, somehow /private/tmp went missing.  Recreated it, and now all is  
fine.  I've no idea how that happened.  Anyhow, please disregard this  
last message.

One thing, though... isn't there some script that clears out /private/ 
tmp at startup?  Perhaps it should also check to make sure it exists?   
Actually, it looks like /etc/rc used to do just that on 10.4.  Where  
does this happen on 10.5 now?  launchd itself?  I didn't see anything  
in the source.

-Dave


From eskimo1 at apple.com  Fri Aug 29 03:28:39 2008
From: eskimo1 at apple.com (Quinn)
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 11:28:39 +0100
Subject: [launchd-dev] can i do this with launchd? (on-demand
 auto-restart daemons)
In-Reply-To: <31003eee0808280112m343ac955hfc273c1918e63444@mail.gmail.com>
References: <31003eee0808280112m343ac955hfc273c1918e63444@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <p06240838c4dd7dd78aa4@[10.0.40.15]>

At 1:12 -0700 28/8/08, Ian wrote:
>can i do this with launchd?

Yes.  This is exactly the sort of thing that launchd excels at.

>1. it should start when the cocoa GUI is started (either manually or 
>via a startup item)

The best way to handle this is to have the daemon launch when a 
client connects to its TCP socket.  You do this by setting up the 
"Sockets" dictionary in your launchd property list file.  launchd 
will open and listen to the socket on your behalf.  When a connection 
comes in, launchd will run your daemon and pass the listening socket 
to it.  When your daemon quits, launchd will resume listening on the 
socket.

The SampleD sample code shows this basic process.

<http://developer.apple.com/samplecode/SampleD/index.html>

>2. if the daemon dies for whatever reason, launchd should restart it

Typically you only want launchd to restart the daemon if someone has 
connected to the TCP socket.  That's the default behaviour.  However, 
you can arrange for other behaviour by way of the "KeepAlive" 
property.  See <x-man-page://5/launchd.plist> for details.

>3. if the GUI is closed, the daemon should be shut off without 
>having it restart.

When the GUI quits the TCP connection to the daemon will close.  When 
the daemon has no open connections, it should quit (after some 
debounce period).

The only real wrinkle in this is Python.  When writing a launchd 
daemon you have to "check in" with launchd to get access to your 
listening socket.  That requires use of the <launch.h> API.  AFAIK 
there's no direct Python binding to that.  It's a simple C API, so if 
you're familiar with glue Python to C it shouldn't present a serious 
obstacle.  Otherwise, you might investigate wrapping your Python code 
within PyObjC so you can do the launchd check in from C and then do 
all the real work from Python.

S+E
-- 
Quinn "The Eskimo!"                    <http://www.apple.com/developer/>
Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware

From ian at slumbrparty.com  Fri Aug 29 11:31:28 2008
From: ian at slumbrparty.com (Ian)
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 11:31:28 -0700
Subject: [launchd-dev] can i do this with launchd? (on-demand
	auto-restart daemons)
In-Reply-To: <p06240838c4dd7dd78aa4@[10.0.40.15]>
References: <31003eee0808280112m343ac955hfc273c1918e63444@mail.gmail.com>
	<p06240838c4dd7dd78aa4@[10.0.40.15]>
Message-ID: <2B42997D-C6C2-41C2-9F38-8CBDC39E9A8E@slumbrparty.com>

thank you for the thorough response. i'll investigate more about the  
python thing. since it is an existing codebase, i'll have to look into  
the last two options.

thanks,

ian

On Aug 29, 2008, at 3:28 AM, Quinn wrote:

> At 1:12 -0700 28/8/08, Ian wrote:
>> can i do this with launchd?
>
> Yes.  This is exactly the sort of thing that launchd excels at.
>
>> 1. it should start when the cocoa GUI is started (either manually or
>> via a startup item)
>
> The best way to handle this is to have the daemon launch when a
> client connects to its TCP socket.  You do this by setting up the
> "Sockets" dictionary in your launchd property list file.  launchd
> will open and listen to the socket on your behalf.  When a connection
> comes in, launchd will run your daemon and pass the listening socket
> to it.  When your daemon quits, launchd will resume listening on the
> socket.
>
> The SampleD sample code shows this basic process.
>
> <http://developer.apple.com/samplecode/SampleD/index.html>
>
>> 2. if the daemon dies for whatever reason, launchd should restart it
>
> Typically you only want launchd to restart the daemon if someone has
> connected to the TCP socket.  That's the default behaviour.  However,
> you can arrange for other behaviour by way of the "KeepAlive"
> property.  See <x-man-page://5/launchd.plist> for details.
>
>> 3. if the GUI is closed, the daemon should be shut off without
>> having it restart.
>
> When the GUI quits the TCP connection to the daemon will close.  When
> the daemon has no open connections, it should quit (after some
> debounce period).
>
> The only real wrinkle in this is Python.  When writing a launchd
> daemon you have to "check in" with launchd to get access to your
> listening socket.  That requires use of the <launch.h> API.  AFAIK
> there's no direct Python binding to that.  It's a simple C API, so if
> you're familiar with glue Python to C it shouldn't present a serious
> obstacle.  Otherwise, you might investigate wrapping your Python code
> within PyObjC so you can do the launchd check in from C and then do
> all the real work from Python.
>
> S+E
> -- 
> Quinn "The Eskimo!"                    <http://www.apple.com/developer/ 
> >
> Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/ 
> Hardware
> _______________________________________________
> launchd-dev mailing list
> launchd-dev at lists.macosforge.org
> http://lists.macosforge.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/launchd-dev


From dave-ml at dribin.org  Fri Aug 29 11:40:15 2008
From: dave-ml at dribin.org (Dave Dribin)
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:40:15 -0500
Subject: [launchd-dev] No pboard server?
In-Reply-To: <3CB1A1EE-357E-4B0D-AC5D-8F4AAFCC3E96@dribin.org>
References: <37F8DB7C-7FF0-4C70-8699-45DE1E864280@dribin.org>
	<3CB1A1EE-357E-4B0D-AC5D-8F4AAFCC3E96@dribin.org>
Message-ID: <C82FD814-0541-414A-93D9-297644918EF3@dribin.org>

On Aug 29, 2008, at 12:18 AM, Dave Dribin wrote:
> One thing, though... isn't there some script that clears out /private/
> tmp at startup?  Perhaps it should also check to make sure it exists?
> Actually, it looks like /etc/rc used to do just that on 10.4.  Where
> does this happen on 10.5 now?  launchd itself?  I didn't see anything
> in the source.

I just confirmed that if /private/tmp is not present on boot, it does  
not get re-created and then Bad Things happen (one of which is no  
pboard daemon).

I'm still not seeing where /private/tmp gets cleared on boot for  
10.5.  Best I can come up with is /etc/periodic/daily/110.clean-tmps.

-Dave


From dave-ml at dribin.org  Fri Aug 29 14:13:49 2008
From: dave-ml at dribin.org (Dave Dribin)
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:13:49 -0500
Subject: [launchd-dev] No pboard server?
In-Reply-To: <C82FD814-0541-414A-93D9-297644918EF3@dribin.org>
References: <37F8DB7C-7FF0-4C70-8699-45DE1E864280@dribin.org>
	<3CB1A1EE-357E-4B0D-AC5D-8F4AAFCC3E96@dribin.org>
	<C82FD814-0541-414A-93D9-297644918EF3@dribin.org>
Message-ID: <3E453280-0E7D-40F9-98BF-E2F5FE6BC347@dribin.org>

On Aug 29, 2008, at 1:40 PM, Dave Dribin wrote:
> I just confirmed that if /private/tmp is not present on boot, it does
> not get re-created and then Bad Things happen (one of which is no
> pboard daemon).

And bug filed: <rdar://problem/6186126>

-Dave


From eskimo1 at apple.com  Fri Aug 29 11:35:10 2008
From: eskimo1 at apple.com (Quinn)
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:35:10 +0100
Subject: [launchd-dev] can i do this with launchd? (on-demand
 auto-restart daemons)
In-Reply-To: <2B42997D-C6C2-41C2-9F38-8CBDC39E9A8E@slumbrparty.com>
References: <31003eee0808280112m343ac955hfc273c1918e63444@mail.gmail.com>
	<p06240838c4dd7dd78aa4@[10.0.40.15]>
	<2B42997D-C6C2-41C2-9F38-8CBDC39E9A8E@slumbrparty.com>
Message-ID: <p0624084bc4ddf1783432@[10.0.40.15]>

At 11:31 -0700 29/8/08, Ian wrote:
>thank you for the thorough response. i'll investigate more about the 
>python thing. since it is an existing codebase, i'll have to look 
>into the last two options.

My experience is that Python makes it pretty easy to access C APIs. 
You can write a full blown Python module to do the job, or just bodgy 
something together using the "ctypes" module.

<http://docs.python.org/lib/module-ctypes.html>

S+E
-- 
Quinn "The Eskimo!"                    <http://www.apple.com/developer/>
Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware

From ian at slumbrparty.com  Fri Aug 29 14:31:12 2008
From: ian at slumbrparty.com (Ian)
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:31:12 -0700
Subject: [launchd-dev] can i do this with launchd? (on-demand
	auto-restart daemons)
In-Reply-To: <p0624084bc4ddf1783432@[10.0.40.15]>
References: <31003eee0808280112m343ac955hfc273c1918e63444@mail.gmail.com>
	<p06240838c4dd7dd78aa4@[10.0.40.15]>
	<2B42997D-C6C2-41C2-9F38-8CBDC39E9A8E@slumbrparty.com>
	<p0624084bc4ddf1783432@[10.0.40.15]>
Message-ID: <24200092-EBD0-49F7-B6C7-0962A9B05953@slumbrparty.com>

my concern is if i want to write a CLI UI in addition to the GUI, then  
the CLI cant maintain an open TCP connection.

i may just have the agent run at login and just not do anything. this  
simplifies things a lot cause then i just have to make a plist file.

On Aug 29, 2008, at 11:35 AM, Quinn wrote:

> At 11:31 -0700 29/8/08, Ian wrote:
>> thank you for the thorough response. i'll investigate more about the
>> python thing. since it is an existing codebase, i'll have to look
>> into the last two options.
>
> My experience is that Python makes it pretty easy to access C APIs.
> You can write a full blown Python module to do the job, or just bodgy
> something together using the "ctypes" module.
>
> <http://docs.python.org/lib/module-ctypes.html>
>
> S+E
> -- 
> Quinn "The Eskimo!"                    <http://www.apple.com/developer/ 
> >
> Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/ 
> Hardware
> _______________________________________________
> launchd-dev mailing list
> launchd-dev at lists.macosforge.org
> http://lists.macosforge.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/launchd-dev