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