- launchd-dev - lists.macosforge.org

Re: [launchd-dev] launchd on freebsd
by Tsvetomir Dimitrov 23 Sep '08

23 Sep '08

I think if we work together we'll have better results. You are more experienced, so lead the way:). About the XML parser maybe we can use expat. It should do the job. What do you think about it? Cheers, Tsvetomir ----- Original Message ---- From: R. Tyler Ballance <tyler(a)monkeypox.org> To: Tsvetomir Dimitrov <tsurko(a)yahoo.com> Cc: Dave Zarzycki <zarzycki(a)apple.com>; Launchd-dev <launchd-dev(a)lists.macosforge.org> Sent: Monday, 22 September, 2008 15:30:50 Subject: Re: [launchd-dev] launchd on freebsd On Mon, 2008-09-22 at 05:16 -0700, Tsvetomir Dimitrov wrote: > Excellent news! Can I help with anything? As I've already said I'm a > beginner. Programming is my hobby and I've just started to work as > professional C programmer. So if you think I can be useful in some way > do not hesitate to write me! Well, you don't necessarily have to go along with the direction I'm taking, but if you're on board, I could certainly use help and I think it would generally help the project if we started adding test coverage to launchd(8) by way of CUnit (http://cunit.sourceforge.net/) I'm a big fan of test-driven porting projects ;) One thing I actually loathe is working with expat, and we will likely need a plist XML file parser. I'm not entirely certain on the FreeBSD project's views on the APSL, but I think one way or another CF-lite is out of the picture (especially if we aim to push this into FreeBSD base). If you're up for it, I think that'd be a great place to start. If you'd like I can push my Git repository to a public web server where we can both collaborate on the development of test cases. What I've done thus far is really not much more than reacquainting myself with launchd(8)'s code, it feels like home, even after all these years :) Cheers, -R. Tyler Ballance > Best regards, > Tsvetomir > > > ----- Original Message ---- > From: R. Tyler Ballance <tyler(a)monkeypox.org> > To: Dave Zarzycki <zarzycki(a)apple.com> > Cc: Tsvetomir Dimitrov <tsurko(a)yahoo.com>; Damien Sorresso > <dsorresso(a)apple.com>; Launchd-dev <launchd-dev(a)lists.macosforge.org> > Sent: Monday, 22 September, 2008 7:39:59 > Subject: Re: [launchd-dev] launchd on freebsd > > On Sun, 2008-09-21 at 18:03 -0700, Dave Zarzycki wrote: > > Tsvetomir, > > > > > > Funny that you should ask. R. Tyler Ballance, the author of the > Googleted to > > Summer of Code project, just emailed me about potentially reviving > the > > port. Hopefully our new launchd maintainer, Damien, can help you > both > > coordinate any porting activity. > > (resending since the mailing list ate my first version) > > I'd like to point out that all work on the previous port of mine is > likely a total wash as it was before zarzycki@ made a large chunk of > changes for the version of launchd(8) for Leopard. > > As it stands now I'm working in a Git repository sitting on my FreeBSD > RELENG_6 machine simply working on getting components compiled or > #ifdef'd out such that they will compile on non-Apple systems. > > The approach I intend on taking this time around is to build some > CUnit > tests around some of the base levels of functionality before I move > onto > the more complicated mach-port-based process management and IPC > mechanisms. I also do not intend on building in any implicit > FreeBSD-isms, as I'd like to take launchd(8) over to my openSUSE > workstations in the future as well ;) > > > Consider any code you find of mine in the FreeBSD perforce repository > as > antique and testament to how much of a n00b I used to be ;) > > > > I'll keep the thread updated on any progress :) > > > Cheers, > -R. Tyler Ballance > > > > Best of luck to you all, > > > > > > davez > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On Sep 21, 2008, at 3:16 PM, Kevin Van Vechten wrote: > > > > > I'm not aware of any current activity surrounding that effort, but > > > it's something we'd like to see. Have you checked the list > archives > > > to see where things left off? > > > > > > > > > On Sep 20, 2008, at 3:28 PM, Tsvetomir Dimitrov <tsurko(a)yahoo.com> > > > wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > > Hello, > > > > There was a Google Summer of code project about porting launchd > on > > > > FreeBSD. Is this project still active? Have you got any > > > > information about it or any other similar? I will be very happy > to > > > > see launchd working on FreeBSD. Unfortunately I am still a > > > > beginner programmer, but I'll do my best to contribute in my > free > > > > time. > > > > Thank you in advance! > > > > > > > > Best regards, > > > > Tsvetomir > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > launchd-dev mailing list > > > > launchd-dev(a)lists.macosforge.org > > > > http://lists.macosforge.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/launchd-dev > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > launchd-dev mailing list > > > launchd-dev(a)lists.macosforge.org > > > http://lists.macosforge.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/launchd-dev > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > launchd-dev mailing list > launchd-dev(a)lists.macosforge.org > http://lists.macosforge.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/launchd-dev

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LaunchAgents & Parental Controls
by Peter Alshuth 23 Sep '08

23 Sep '08

Hi all, I discovered an issue that my agent (a background Cocoa app) is not getting launched (from /Library/LaunchAgents/) when parental controls (Leopard) are active for a specific user account. Is this limited only to carbon/cocoa apps that they have to be in the list of allowed apps or can I set some kind of flags in order to have launchd launched my agent successfully? Unfortunately, I don't have the app stored inside the user's folder or the application directory, so the parental control panel doesn't list it automatically to offer it. Any kind of non-standard solution available, like editing a settings files (which one?) by a script while my installer creating all the daemon and agent related files? I really don't want to tell my end users to go into the parental control panel for each person's account and adding my agent app. I thought that the plist file permission for the launch agents has to be 'root/whell -rw-r--r--' permission set in order to get handled correctly. That would mean that no non-admin users can change its description in order to bypass e.g. the parental control settings. It makes no sense for me why a launch agent app needs to be on the parental control list in this case. Thanks for any help, Peter

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Re: [launchd-dev] launchd on freebsd
by Tsvetomir Dimitrov 22 Sep '08

22 Sep '08

Excellent news! Can I help with anything? As I've already said I'm a beginner. Programming is my hobby and I've just started to work as professional C programmer. So if you think I can be useful in some way do not hesitate to write me! Best regards, Tsvetomir ----- Original Message ---- From: R. Tyler Ballance <tyler(a)monkeypox.org> To: Dave Zarzycki <zarzycki(a)apple.com> Cc: Tsvetomir Dimitrov <tsurko(a)yahoo.com>; Damien Sorresso <dsorresso(a)apple.com>; Launchd-dev <launchd-dev(a)lists.macosforge.org> Sent: Monday, 22 September, 2008 7:39:59 Subject: Re: [launchd-dev] launchd on freebsd On Sun, 2008-09-21 at 18:03 -0700, Dave Zarzycki wrote: > Tsvetomir, > > > Funny that you should ask. R. Tyler Ballance, the author of the Googleted to > Summer of Code project, just emailed me about potentially reviving the > port. Hopefully our new launchd maintainer, Damien, can help you both > coordinate any porting activity. (resending since the mailing list ate my first version) I'd like to point out that all work on the previous port of mine is likely a total wash as it was before zarzycki@ made a large chunk of changes for the version of launchd(8) for Leopard. As it stands now I'm working in a Git repository sitting on my FreeBSD RELENG_6 machine simply working on getting components compiled or #ifdef'd out such that they will compile on non-Apple systems. The approach I intend on taking this time around is to build some CUnit tests around some of the base levels of functionality before I move onto the more complicated mach-port-based process management and IPC mechanisms. I also do not intend on building in any implicit FreeBSD-isms, as I'd like to take launchd(8) over to my openSUSE workstations in the future as well ;) Consider any code you find of mine in the FreeBSD perforce repository as antique and testament to how much of a n00b I used to be ;) > I'll keep the thread updated on any progress :) Cheers, -R. Tyler Ballance > > Best of luck to you all, > > > davez > > > > > > > > On Sep 21, 2008, at 3:16 PM, Kevin Van Vechten wrote: > > > I'm not aware of any current activity surrounding that effort, but > > it's something we'd like to see. Have you checked the list archives > > to see where things left off? > > > > > > On Sep 20, 2008, at 3:28 PM, Tsvetomir Dimitrov <tsurko(a)yahoo.com> > > wrote: > > > > > > > > > Hello, > > > There was a Google Summer of code project about porting launchd on > > > FreeBSD. Is this project still active? Have you got any > > > information about it or any other similar? I will be very happy to > > > see launchd working on FreeBSD. Unfortunately I am still a > > > beginner programmer, but I'll do my best to contribute in my free > > > time. > > > Thank you in advance! > > > > > > Best regards, > > > Tsvetomir > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > launchd-dev mailing list > > > launchd-dev(a)lists.macosforge.org > > > http://lists.macosforge.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/launchd-dev > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > launchd-dev mailing list > > launchd-dev(a)lists.macosforge.org > > http://lists.macosforge.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/launchd-dev >

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Technical Question
by Jan Michael 17 Sep '08

17 Sep '08

Dear Readers, I'm trying to get the following command launched by launchd on system startup > while `sleep 4`; do echo **clunk** > /tmp/declunk && rm -f /tmp/ declunk; done & I created a bash script /usr/bin/declunk with 1 #!/bin/bash 2 while `sleep 4`; do echo **clunk** > /tmp/declunk && rm -f /tmp/ declunk; done & And than create the following launchd plist in /Library/LaunchDaemons 1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 2 <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd "> 3 <plist version="1.0"> 4 <dict> 5 <key>Disabled</key> 6 <false/> 7 <key>KeepAlive</key> 8 <false/> 9 <key>Label</key> 10 <string>de.tiggar.declunk</string> 11 <key>ProgramArguments</key> 12 <array> 13 <string>/usr/bin/declunk</string> 14 </array> 15 <key>RunAtLoad</key> 16 <true/> 17 <key>StartOnMount</key> 18 <false/> 19 </dict> 20 </plist> Next i try to load the agent with: > Sep 16 22:03:00 iah sudo[7855]: Jan : TTY=ttys000 ; PWD=/ Library/LaunchDaemons ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/bin/launchctl load -w de.tiggar.declunk.plist > Sep 16 22:03:00 iah com.apple.launchd[1] (de.tiggar.declunk[7861]): Stray process with PGID equal to this dead job: PID 7863 PPID 7862 sleep > Sep 16 22:03:00 iah com.apple.launchd[1] (de.tiggar.declunk[7861]): Stray process with PGID equal to this dead job: PID 7862 PPID 1 bash So the question is now. It is possible to have a script like that work with launchd? What do I have done wrong? Thanks for your help. Cheers, Jan

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can i do this with launchd? (on-demand auto-restart daemons)
by Ian 29 Aug '08

29 Aug '08

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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No pboard server?
by Dave Dribin 29 Aug '08

29 Aug '08

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

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Restrict so only one instance runs
by Crawford Kyle 28 Aug '08

28 Aug '08

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

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Re: [launchd-dev] Stopping and uninstalling a LaunchDaemon job
by Shawn Erickson 27 Aug '08

27 Aug '08

On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 8:36 AM, Quinn <eskimo1(a)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

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Re: [launchd-dev] Stopping and uninstalling a LaunchDaemon job
by Shawn Erickson 27 Aug '08

27 Aug '08

On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 8:15 AM, Quinn <eskimo1(a)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

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Stopping and uninstalling a LaunchDaemon job
by Shawn Erickson 27 Aug '08

27 Aug '08

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

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