Launchd Tools

Convert from command to launchd plist or from launchd plist to command

Installation

$ gem install launchd_tools

Command Usage

Output the command and arguments from a launchd plist:

$ launchd2cmd /path/to/launchd.plist [another/launchd.plist]

Create a launchd plist from a command and arguments:

$ cmd2launchd /path/to/daemon [arg] [-option]

Examples

####launchd2cmd with multiple directories:

$ launchd2cmd /System/Library/LaunchAgents /System/Library/LaunchDaemons
...
# /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/tftp.plist
/usr/libexec/tftpd -i /private/tftpboot

####launchd2cmd wildcards/globbing:

$ launchd2cmd /Library/Launch*/com.googlecode.munki.*
...
# /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.googlecode.munki.managedsoftwareupdate-manualcheck.plist
/usr/local/munki/supervisor --timeout 43200 -- /usr/local/munki/managedsoftwareupdate --manualcheck

####cmd2launchd creating a launchd plist skeleton:

$ cmd2launchd /usr/local/bin/daemond -d --mode foreground
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version='1.0'>
  <dict>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
      <string>/usr/local/bin/daemond</string>
      <string>-d</string>
      <string>--mode</string>
      <string>foreground</string>
    </array>
  </dict>
</plist>

Packaging

Use the excellent fpm https://github.com/jordansissel/fpm

gem install fpm
fpm -s gem -t osxpkg --osxpkg-identifier-prefix org.rubygems.kcrawford --no-gem-env-shebang launchd_tools

The package will be output in the current directory as rubygem-launchd_tools-<version>.pkg

Usage from Ruby

Parsing a launchd plist

require 'launchd_tools/path'
sshd_plist_path = LaunchdTools::Path.new("/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist")
sshd_job = sshd_plist_path.parse
sshd_job.program_arguments
# => ["/usr/sbin/sshd", "-i"]

Creating a launchd plist

require 'launchd_tools/launchd_plist'
plist = LaunchdTools::LaunchdPlist.new
plist.add_program_args(["/usr/local/bin/daemon", "-f", "-o",
"/var/log/daemon.log"])
plist.to_s
# =>
# <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
#<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
#"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
#<plist version='1.0'>
#  <dict>
#    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
#    <array>
#      <string>/usr/local/bin/daemon</string>
#      <string>-f</string>
#      <string>-o</string>
#      <string>/var/log/daemon.log</string>
#    </array>
#  </dict>
#</plist>

Contributing

1. Fork it
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create new Pull Request