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 v
  11 .Op Fl s
  12 .Op Fl x
  13 .Op Ar -- command Op Ar args ...
  14 .Sh DESCRIPTION
  15 .Nm
  16 manages daemons, both for the system as a whole and for individual users. Ideal daemons can launch
  17 on demand based on criteria specified in their respective XML property lists located in one of the
  18 directories specified in the FILES section.
  19 .Pp
  20 When run with a command, a specific instance of
  21 .Nm
  22 is created and the command is implicitly added to the list of jobs maintained by
  23 .Nm .
  24 If the command exits, that instance of
  25 .Nm
  26 will clean up all jobs maintained by itself and exit. All children of the command will use that
  27 instance of
  28 .Nm .
  29 .Pp
  30 During boot
  31 .Nm
  32 is invoked by the kernel to run as the first process on the system and to further bootstrap the rest of the system.
  33 .Sh OPTIONS WHEN RUN AS PID 1
  34 .Bl -tag -width -indent
  35 .It Fl d
  36 Daemonize. Useful when passing a command to launchd on the command line.
  37 .It Fl v
  38 Verbose boot.
  39 .It Fl s
  40 Single user mode. Instructs
  41 .Nm launchd
  42 to give a shell prompt before booting the system.
  43 .It Fl x
  44 Safe mode boot. Instructs the system to boot conservatively.
  45 .El
  46 .Sh ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES
  47 .Bl -tag -width -indent
  48 .It Pa LAUNCHD_SOCKET
  49 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.
  50 .El
  51 .Sh NOTES
  52 In Darwin it is preferable to have your daemon launch via launchd instead of modifying
  53 .Nm rc
  54 or creating a
  55 .Nm SystemStarter
  56 Startup Item.
  57 .Pp
  58 At some point in the future, we hope to completely phase out the use of
  59 .Nm rc .
  60 .Sh FILES
  61 .Bl -tag -width "/System/Library/LaunchDaemons" -compact
  62 .It Pa ~/Library/LaunchAgents
  63 Per-user agents provided by the user.
  64 .It Pa /Library/LaunchAgents
  65 Per-user agents provided by the administrator.
  66 .It Pa /Library/LaunchDaemons
  67 System wide daemons provided by the administrator.
  68 .It Pa /System/Library/LaunchAgents
  69 Mac OS X Per-user agents.
  70 .It Pa /System/Library/LaunchDaemons
  71 Mac OS X System wide daemons.
  72 .El
  73 .Sh SEE ALSO
  74 .Xr launchctl 1 ,
  75 .Xr launchd.plist 5 ,
  76 .Xr rc 8 ,
  77 .Xr SystemStarter 8