[launchd-dev] Is there anything that can prevent launchd from working

[Scott Haneda]

In a case where launchd works just fine all the time, for example:
<dict>
         <key>Label</key>
         <string>com.host.ntpdate</string>
         <key>ProgramArguments</key>
         <array>
                 <string>/bin/bash</string>
                 <string>/Users/me/bin/set_date</string>
         </array>
         <key>RunAtLoad</key>
         <true/>
         <key>StartInterval</key>
         <integer>3600</integer>
</dict>

script... (slightly shortened)
      #!/bin/bash
      # Create a place to store this log file
      log_path=/Users/me/Library/Logs/ntpdate.log

      echo `date`  >> $log_path

      # Sleep for a duration so the system can get the interfaces up
      # Running in chunks just so the log and get updated
      # and I can see that it is working

      echo "Sleeping...90 Seconds     `date`" >> $log_path
      /bin/sleep 90;

      # Do the work
      echo "About to run ntpdate -u" >> $log_path
      /usr/sbin/ntpdate -u
      echo "Finished running ntpdate -u" >> $log_path

log... (Full output, non shortened)
      ----- BEGIN -----
      Started to set time and date
      Mon Jun 1 11:18:35 PDT 2009
      Sleeping...30 Seconds     Mon Jun  1 11:18:36 PDT 2009
      Sleeping...30 Seconds     Mon Jun  1 11:19:06 PDT 2009
      Sleeping...15 Seconds     Mon Jun  1 11:19:36 PDT 2009
      About to run ntpdate -u
      Finished running ntpdate -u
      Finished setting time and date
      ----- END -----

Syslog tells me it works:
Jun  1 10:57:41 host com.host.ntpdate[19696]:  1 Jun 10:57:41  
ntpdate[19776]: adjust time server 17.151.16.21 offset -0.070842 sec

It works all the time, sans one case, which is when I need it most.  I  
hope there are people here who know a but about the kernel of OS X.   
When the machine panics, which I am still working on determining why,  
I suspect ram, though on the 3rd batch.  I have 100% ruled out a bad  
pram battery.

After a panic, the "automatically restart after power failure" feature  
does not work.  It does work any other time, only after panics does  
not it.  I have to physically reboot.  This also adds more credence to  
the battery being fine.

When the machine comes up, there is a message on screen about the date  
and time being at 1969.  Doing a google search for "panic 1969" and  
you see there are a good deal of others with panic logs at 1969.  I  
conclude, panics mess with the date and time for some reason, or nuke  
nvram, not sure.

No big deal really, though this is an email server, and if I forget,  
or do not have access, the date and time will continue to be wrong,  
and all emails will be wrongly dated.

My plist is set to run at load, and also to run every 60 minutes,  
which I see it does do.  I can find a syslog line that shows it ran at  
load, and ones that show it runs every hour as well.

launchd totally fails to run this item after a kernel panic and the  
date is set into the 1969 range.  I have the sys log for where the  
dates are all Dec 31, which is just after the panic, and after I  
called in a reboot, which then foiled my script from setting the date  
correctly.

I see named started, which uses launchd, so I know it is working.  I  
see a lot of other things start.  But then I see this:

Dec 31 16:00:54 host-domain-com com.apple.launchd[1]  
(com.domain.ntpdate[50]): Exited with exit code: 1

Right after that, I have a launchd item that checks S.M.A.R.T. which  
runs.  Since this is after bind came up, I am pretty sure the  
interfaces are up enough that I could talk to a time server.

Is there something about ntpdate that will error out on insanely large  
time offsets?  All I end up doing to solve it is `sudo /usr/sbin/ 
ntpdate -u`, the same thing launchd should do.

I will solve the panics, in the meantime, I would love to know how to  
protect myself from living in the past for too long.  Thank you all.
-- 
Scott * If you contact me off list replace talklists@ with scott@ *