launchd/src/launchd.8

   1 .Dd September 30, 2004
   2 .Dt launchd 8
   3 .Os Darwin
   4 .Sh NAME
   5 .Nm launchd
   6 .Nd System wide and per-user daemon/agent manager
   7 .Sh SYNOPSIS
   8 .Nm
   9 .Op Fl d
  10 .Op Fl D
  11 .Op Fl s
  12 .Op Fl S Ar SessionType
  13 .Op Ar -- command Op Ar args ...
  14 .Sh DESCRIPTION
  15 .Nm
  16 manages processes, both for the system as a whole and for individual users.
  17 The primary and preferred interface to
  18 .Nm
  19 is via the
  20 .Xr launchctl 1
  21 tool which (among other options) allows the user or administrator to load and unload jobs.
  22 Where possible, it is preferable for jobs to launch on demand based on criteria specified
  23 in their respective configuration files.
  24 .Pp
  25 When run with a command, a specific instance of
  26 .Nm
  27 is created and the command is implicitly added to the list of jobs maintained by
  28 .Nm .
  29 If the command exits, that instance of
  30 .Nm
  31 will clean up all jobs maintained by itself and exit. All children of the command will use that
  32 instance of
  33 .Nm .
  34 .Pp
  35 During boot
  36 .Nm
  37 is invoked by the kernel to run as the first process on the system and to further bootstrap the rest of the system.
  38 .Sh OPTIONS
  39 .Bl -tag -width -indent
  40 .It Fl d
  41 Daemonize. Useful when passing a command to launchd on the command line.
  42 .It Fl D
  43 Debug. Prints syslog messages to stderr and adjusts logging via
  44 .Xr syslog 3
  45 to LOG_DEBUG.
  46 .It Fl S Ar SessionType
  47 Instruct launchd to which session type it is.
  48 .El
  49 .Sh OPTIONS WHEN RUN AS PID 1
  50 .Bl -tag -width -indent
  51 .It Fl s
  52 Single user mode. Instructs
  53 .Nm launchd
  54 to give a shell prompt before booting the system.
  55 .El
  56 .Sh ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES
  57 .Bl -tag -width -indent
  58 .It Pa LAUNCHD_SOCKET
  59 This variable is exported when invoking a command via the launchd command line. It informs launchctl how to find the correct launchd to talk to.
  60 .El
  61 .Sh NOTES
  62 In Darwin it is preferable to have your daemon launch via launchd instead of modifying
  63 .Nm rc
  64 or creating a
  65 .Nm SystemStarter
  66 Startup Item.
  67 .Pp
  68 At some point in the future, we hope to completely phase out the use of
  69 .Nm rc .
  70 .Sh FILES
  71 .Bl -tag -width "/System/Library/LaunchDaemons" -compact
  72 .It Pa ~/Library/LaunchAgents
  73 Per-user agents provided by the user.
  74 .It Pa /Library/LaunchAgents
  75 Per-user agents provided by the administrator.
  76 .It Pa /Library/LaunchDaemons
  77 System wide daemons provided by the administrator.
  78 .It Pa /System/Library/LaunchAgents
  79 Mac OS X Per-user agents.
  80 .It Pa /System/Library/LaunchDaemons
  81 Mac OS X System wide daemons.
  82 .El
  83 .Sh SEE ALSO
  84 .Xr launchctl 1 ,
  85 .Xr launchd.plist 5 ,
  86 .Xr rc 8 ,
  87 .Xr SystemStarter 8