[launchd-dev] ~/LaunchAgent + KeepAlive=true = Login Jail

[James Bucanek]

Greetings,

I have a user launch agent (~/Library/LaunchAgents) that has 
KeepAlive set to true. The launch agent is a Cocoa application, 
UIElement=YES. It provides a small status window to the user.

I want this application to run all of the time, which is why the 
KeepAlive property was set. Whenever my application quits, 
launchd restarts it (as one would expect). The problem is that 
when the user tries to log out, the agent quits, launchd 
immediately restarts it, and the user gets a nasty message that 
the logout/restart/shutdown was canceled by my application.

[There's clearly an amusing race condition: Once it's down to 
the Finder, launchd, my application and maybe one or two other 
small applications, the system manages to log out by killing my 
app and launchd before launchd has a chance to restart my 
application again.]

Anyway, is there a workaround for this or do I just have to 
abandon KeepAlive?

-- 
James Bucanek