- launchd-dev - lists.macosforge.org

Run job when network configuration changes
by Jeremy Reichman 30 Oct '07

30 Oct '07

I'm looking at the new KeepAlive section in the launchd.plist man page, specifically at the NetworkStatus item. Could this be used to run a job _once_ whenever the system's network configuration changes ... a laptop moves from wired to wireless, or moves from work to home, or the like? But run the same job each time the network config changes? I'm not quite sure from the description. I used to be able to add an item to Kicker.xml for SystemConfiguration, but I hear that's no longer an option. I haven't checked for it yet, myself, though. Even so, this was not optimal because my edits in Kicker.xml might have overwritten by Apple in a future software update. Writing my own daemon is also not an option; this is purely for systems administration purposes and I'd like to only _add_ a launchd plist and _add_ a script to the system if that's possible. This ability to only add on, not edit or replace existing config files, is one attraction of launchd at the systems administration level. Thanks! -- Jeremy

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Environment Variables and LimitLoadToSessionType?
by Matthew Hansen 15 Oct '07

15 Oct '07

Question about environment variables under launchd (10.4)... Our launchd item needs to run as root and theres really no way around that, we are small, low level admin maintenance on many machines... So far I've determined the best location to be /Library/ LauchdDaemons...even though I would prefer running only after all system services are up and running, and most likely after login. Maintenance items would mostly likely replacing expired software license keys, auto-updating of "in-house" custom applications, and Active Directory password expiration notifications. Is this something that can be done with "LimitLoadToSessionType" in Tiger, or is this a Leopard only feature? I haven't been able to find documentation on the session types...? Our main question relating to this what is the best way to get the shortname of the logged in user in the launchd item running as root? again launched from /Library/LauchdDaemons, this is for running lookups on the user, for group memberships, setting permissions, and notifications... Previously we have always used either the system $USER variable or $SUDO_USER when executing as root to get the shortname of the user to initiated the sudo command. Neither of these become useful after loading the job into launchd because of the job being run as root, initiated by launchd. Thanks, Matt

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GUI app before loginwindow post Tiger
by Kyle Crawford 09 Oct '07

09 Oct '07

What is the recommended way to run a GUI app before loginwindow post Tiger? In Panther I could set dependencies in StartupItems In Tiger I called my script from rc.local so it would run before loginwindow. I see that rc.local is still supposed to work post Tiger, but it does not seem to be able to force it to run before loginwindow and seems to be lumped in with StartupItems. Also, perhaps a separate issue is that I get a message that untrusted apps can not attach to or launch WindowServer on demand before loginwindow. Is this somehow related to LimitLoadToSessionType? I am a scripter/sysadmin attempting to run iHook to display progress of a script before a user can login. I do plan on doing more on demand, but some tasks like installing software that requires a reboot don't make sense post-login since the user would be interrupted and told to reboot soon after they logged in anyway. Kyle Crawford

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CMF vs LaunchD
by Nehemiah Dacres 16 Sep '07

16 Sep '07

some one critiqes your talk on launchd in favor of Solarus's CMF, any comments? http://www.macgeekery.com/launchd_video#comments the comment is "The whole presentation was significantly longer and more verbose than it needs to be. I found two things interesting: – for all the talk about making things easy to use, setting up launchd jobs without the use of a third-party app like Lingon is harder than it needs to be – many of the shortcomings of launchd are already addressed by Solaris' SMF, e.g. dependency tracking between services, or monitoring all the subprocesses so that if a service is restarted, you don't have left-over orphaned child processes of the old service instance to get in your way" posted as anon. i agree with your not wanting to allow the user(admin) to fork and forget as your say but what about his other claim. any reply? -- "lalalalala! it's not broken because I can use it" http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=194281&threshold=1&commentsort=0&…

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launchd: changes with 10.4.10?
by Peter Craddock 24 Aug '07

24 Aug '07

Dear sir, dear madam, dear all, I recently discovered the existence of "authsight" ( http:// www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2006120918170984 and http:// www.zdziarski.com/projects/authsight/ ), a Daemon that enables the user to track failed login attempts by taking an iSight picture of the person who enters a wrong password (and then possibly e-mailing it). Unfortunately, authsight stopped working with Mac OS 10.4.10 (it only works after the login window has been successfully passed [after some modification]), and so I wonder if it is due to any changes in the way launchd handles files. I noticed on the "launchd-dev" archives a few e-mail exchanges about resource limits, could that be related? If so, I will gladly wait Leopard. Otherwise, I'll probably try to see about StartupItems, if they will get it to work somehow. In the meantime, any thoughts? Best regards, Peter Craddock ——————— Peter Craddock 44 rue de Linthout, 1030 Brussels, Belgium Mobile: +32477/132453 Phone: +322/736.95.88 Fax: +322/736.87.83 peter(a)craddock.be

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ports
by Nehemiah Dacres 01 Aug '07

01 Aug '07

I looked in the logs of this mailing list and saw no mentions of any of the ports (to other OS) of launchd. I would like to know if this has been ported to GNU/Linux ever. i know there is an openbsd port. -- "lalalalala! it's not broken because I can use it" http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=194281&threshold=1&commentsort=0&…

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Re: [launchd-dev] resource limits
by Dave Zarzycki 18 Jul '07

18 Jul '07

Not all limits are enforced on Mac OS X at the moment… On Jul 17, 2007, at 3:23 PM, Greg Dingle wrote: > Hi Davez, > > I got around to trying ulimit just now and I got it to work with the > max filesize but not any of the memory options, which is what I > really need. I tried all of: > > ulimit -m 1000 > ulimit -l 1000 > ulimit -v 1000 > > ...then started programs that use more than 1 meg of memory with no > effect. I expected to get an error message or some evidence in top. > Is there something that I should know about ulimit on Mac OS? I > searched google with no success. > > Greg > > On 9-Jul-07, at 1:43 PM, Dave Zarzycki wrote: > >> Syntactically, what you added to your property list is correct. The >> bug in launchd (fixed in Leopard) is difficult to explain. I think >> the most pragmatic thing to do on a Tiger based system is to do is >> wrap the daemon in a quick shell script and have it adjust the >> resource limit you want. For example: >> >> #!/bin/sh >> >> ulimit -c 0 >> >> exec /usr/sbin/serverd >> >> >> >> >> davez >> >> >> >> On Jul 9, 2007, at 1:38 PM, Greg Dingle wrote: >> >>> No, sorry, can't wait until Leopard. I want to use the resource >>> limits for a program currently running on a production server. >>> >>> What is thing that is easily confused? I have tried both soft/hard >>> limits -- that is not what you mean, is it? Is the implementation >>> actually broken? I thought somebody here could just clarify the >>> form for setting the limits. >>> >>> Greg >>> >>> On 9-Jul-07, at 1:28 PM, Dave Zarzycki wrote: >>> >>>> Sadly, in retrospect, it looks like the soft/hard limit code in >>>> Tiger (not Leopard) contains an easily confusable implementation. >>>> Can you wait until Leopard? >>>> >>>> davez >>>> >>>> >>>> On Jul 9, 2007, at 11:00 AM, Greg Dingle wrote: >>>> >>>>> The build is 10.4.10. >>>>> >>>>> On 9-Jul-07, at 9:20 AM, Dave Zarzycki wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> Which build of the OS? >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> On Jul 7, 2007, at 4:16 PM, Greg Dingle wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>>> Hi, I'm just trying to get the resource limits working with >>>>>>> launchd and a plist. Whatever I try I get a segmentation fault. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> I've tried with an empty dict: >>>>>>> >>>>>>> <?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>TEST</string> >>>>>>> <key>OnDemand</key> >>>>>>> <false/> >>>>>>> <key>ProgramArguments</key> >>>>>>> <array> >>>>>>> <string>/bin/ls</string> >>>>>>> </array> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> <key>SoftResourceLimits</key> >>>>>>> <dict> >>>>>>> </dict> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> </dict> >>>>>>> </plist> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> And also with some dummy values: >>>>>>> >>>>>>> <?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>TEST</string> >>>>>>> <key>OnDemand</key> >>>>>>> <false/> >>>>>>> <key>ProgramArguments</key> >>>>>>> <array> >>>>>>> <string>/bin/ls</string> >>>>>>> </array> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> <key>SoftResourceLimits</key> >>>>>>> <dict> >>>>>>> <key>Core</key> >>>>>>> <integer>10000000000</integer> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> <key>CPU</key> >>>>>>> <integer>10000000000</integer> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> <key>Data</key> >>>>>>> <integer>10000000000</integer> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> <key>FileSize</key> >>>>>>> <integer>10000000000</integer> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> <key>MemoryLock</key> >>>>>>> <integer>10000000000</integer> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> <key>NumberOfFiles</key> >>>>>>> <integer>8192</integer> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> <key>NumberofProcesses</key> >>>>>>> <integer>150</integer> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> <key>ResidentSetSize</key> >>>>>>> <integer>100000000</integer> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> <key>Stack</key> >>>>>>> <integer>10000</integer> >>>>>>> </dict> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> </dict> >>>>>>> </plist> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Do I at least have the format correct? I couldn't find any >>>>>>> examples with google to work from. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Cheers, >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Greeg >>>>>>> >>>>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>>>> launchd-dev mailing list >>>>>>> launchd-dev(a)lists.macosforge.org >>>>>>> http://lists.macosforge.org/mailman/listinfo/launchd-dev >>>>>> >>>>> >>>> >>> >> >

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resource limits
by Greg Dingle 09 Jul '07

09 Jul '07

Hi, I'm just trying to get the resource limits working with launchd and a plist. Whatever I try I get a segmentation fault. I've tried with an empty dict: <?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>TEST</string> <key>OnDemand</key> <false/> <key>ProgramArguments</key> <array> <string>/bin/ls</string> </array> <key>SoftResourceLimits</key> <dict> </dict> </dict> </plist> And also with some dummy values: <?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>TEST</string> <key>OnDemand</key> <false/> <key>ProgramArguments</key> <array> <string>/bin/ls</string> </array> <key>SoftResourceLimits</key> <dict> <key>Core</key> <integer>10000000000</integer> <key>CPU</key> <integer>10000000000</integer> <key>Data</key> <integer>10000000000</integer> <key>FileSize</key> <integer>10000000000</integer> <key>MemoryLock</key> <integer>10000000000</integer> <key>NumberOfFiles</key> <integer>8192</integer> <key>NumberofProcesses</key> <integer>150</integer> <key>ResidentSetSize</key> <integer>100000000</integer> <key>Stack</key> <integer>10000</integer> </dict> </dict> </plist> Do I at least have the format correct? I couldn't find any examples with google to work from. Cheers, Greeg

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LaunchAgentFixer for Tiger
by \"Miklós Fazekas\" 21 May '07

21 May '07

I wrote a program that tries to work around the LaunchAgents problem in Tiger. I'd welcome comments about that. This tool is a LaunchAgent. The idea is that this tool registers itself to loginwindow.plist/AutoLaunchedApplicationDirectory at it's startup. Then when this tool started from loginwindow, it checks for the other instance started from laucnhd. a.) If launchd launched it in good GUI session, the loginwindow started one will just quit as in this case launchd launched all the agents in the correct session. b.) If launchd launched it in bad GUI session. The loginwindow started one will start a new launchd, and loads all the agents to it. Currently it loads only agents having a special key in their plist. Regards, Miklos

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process dependancies
by Joël Brogniart 13 Mar '07

13 Mar '07

Hi, A nice feature of SystemStartup is the notion of dependancies, ie the ability to spécify that a process is dependant of other processes. I don't see anything similar in launchd documentation. Do I have missed something in the doc or this feature doesn't exist with launchd? Regards. Joël Brogniart

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