STEPS TO REPRODUCE: • Install a launchd plist file, with a single WatchPaths parameter, but do not load it. • Touch the watched path • Load the job EXPECTED RESULT: Nothing should happen, because the file was touched *before* the job was loaded. ACTUAL RESULT: The job launches its program. * * * If I insert a slight wait between touching and loading, the job does not launch. In the script which follows, the threshold wait is about 0.5 seconds. In an application I've written, which invokes launchctl via NSTask, the threshold wait is 1-2 seconds. This seems to be a bug in launchd (Mac OS X 10.7.2)? You can demo it by running the following shell script. The script attempts to experiment with different wait (sleep) values, but unexpectedly, only the first run of the function doTest ever "launches". • If the first sleep value is about 0.4 or less, I get one "launch". • If it's 0.5, I may or may not get one "launch". • If it's 0.6 or more, I get zero "launches". • Playing with the other sleep values in the script does not affect the results. • Probably, the first time you run the script, there is no "launch". Retry. As you can see, there's a lot which does not make sense here. Any explanations of this behavior would be appreciated. Thanks, Jerry Krinock #!/bin/bash OUR_AGENT_LABEL=TestLoadUnload OUR_TOUCH_FILE=TestTouch.txt function isAgentLoaded { let IS_LOADED=`launchctl list | grep -c $OUR_AGENT_LABEL` echo "Our agent loaded = $IS_LOADED" } function doTest { isAgentLoaded # Touch watched file touch ~/Desktop/$OUR_TOUCH_FILE.txt echo "Did touch" sleep $SLEEPY_TIME echo "Slept for $SLEEPY_TIME" # Load Agent launchctl load $OUR_AGENT_LABEL.plist echo "Did load" sleep 1 isAgentLoaded sleep 1 # Unload Agent launchctl unload $OUR_AGENT_LABEL.plist echo "Did unload" # Wait sleep 1 } # Create a small text file which launchd will watch cd ~/Desktop echo "This is a test" > $OUR_TOUCH_FILE cd ~/Library/LaunchAgents # Install a launchd plist file which will define our Agent echo "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>" > $OUR_AGENT_LABEL.plist echo "<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC \"-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN\"" >> $OUR_AGENT_LABEL.plist echo "\"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd\">" >> $OUR_AGENT_LABEL.plist echo "<plist version=\"1.0\">" >> $OUR_AGENT_LABEL.plist echo "<dict>" >> $OUR_AGENT_LABEL.plist echo " <key>Label</key>" >> $OUR_AGENT_LABEL.plist echo " <string>$OUR_AGENT_LABEL</string>" >> $OUR_AGENT_LABEL.plist echo " <key>ProgramArguments</key>" >> $OUR_AGENT_LABEL.plist echo " <array>" >> $OUR_AGENT_LABEL.plist echo " <string>osascript</string>" >> $OUR_AGENT_LABEL.plist echo " <string>-e</string>" >> $OUR_AGENT_LABEL.plist echo " <string>say \"Launched!\"</string>" >> $OUR_AGENT_LABEL.plist echo " </array>" >> $OUR_AGENT_LABEL.plist echo " <key>ThrottleInterval</key>" >> $OUR_AGENT_LABEL.plist echo " <integer>1</integer>" >> $OUR_AGENT_LABEL.plist echo " <key>WatchPaths</key>" >> $OUR_AGENT_LABEL.plist echo " <array>" >> $OUR_AGENT_LABEL.plist echo " <string>$HOME/Desktop/$OUR_TOUCH_FILE</string>" >> $OUR_AGENT_LABEL.plist echo " </array>" >> $OUR_AGENT_LABEL.plist echo "</dict>" >> $OUR_AGENT_LABEL.plist echo "</plist>" >> $OUR_AGENT_LABEL.plist # Begin actual testing SLEEPY_TIME=0.1 doTest SLEEPY_TIME=0.2 doTest SLEEPY_TIME=0.3 doTest SLEEPY_TIME=0.4 doTest SLEEPY_TIME=0.5 doTest SLEEPY_TIME=0.6 doTest