launchctl(1)

NAME
launchctl - Interfaces with launchd

SYNOPSIS
launchctl [subcommand [arguments ...]]

DESCRIPTION
launchctl interfaces with launchd to load, unload daemons/agents and generally control launchd. launchctl supports taking subcommands on the command line, interactively or even redirected from standard input. These commands can be stored in $HOME/.launchd.conf or /etc/launchd.conf to be read at the time launchd starts.

SUBCOMMANDS

load [-wF]
    [-S sessiontype] [-D domain] paths ... Load the specified configuration files or directories of configuration files. Jobs that are not on-demand will be started as soon as possible. All specified jobs will be loaded before any of them are allowed to start.

    -w  Remove the disabled key and write the configuration files back out to disk.

    -F  Force the loading of the plist. Ignore the Disabled key.

    -S sessiontype
        Some jobs only make sense in certain contexts. This flag instructs launchctl to look for jobs in a different location when using the -D flag, and allows launchctl to restrict which jobs are loaded into which session types. Currently known session types include: Aqua, X11 and tty.

    -D domain
        Look for plist(5) files ending in *.plist in the domain given. Valid domains include "system," "local," "network" and "all." When providing a session type, an additional domain is available for use called "user." For example, without a session type given, "-D system" would load from property list files from /System/Library/LaunchDaemons. With a session type passed, it would load from /System/Library/LaunchAgents.

unload [-w]
    paths ... Unload the specified configuration files or directories of configuration files. This will also stop the job if it is running.

    -w  Add the disabled key and write the configuration files back out to disk.

submit -l label
    [-p executable] [-o path] [-e path] -- command [args] A simple way of submitting a program to run without a configuration file. This mechanism also tells launchd to keep the program alive in the event of failure.

    -l label
        What unique label to assign this job to launchd.

    -p program
        What program to really execute, regardless of what follows the -- in the submit sub-command.

    -o path
        Where to send the stdout of the program.

    -e path
        Where to send the stderr of the program.

remove job_label
    Remove the jobs from launchd by label.

start job_label
    Start the specified jobs by label. The expected use of this subcommand is for debugging and testing so that one can manually kick-start an on-demand server.

stop job_label
    Stop the specified jobs by label. If a job is on-demand, launchd may immediately restart the job if launchd finds any criteria that is satisfied. Non-demand based jobs will always be restarted. Use of this subcommand is discouraged. Jobs should ideally idle timeout by themselves.

list
    List all of the jobs loaded into launchd.

setenv key value
    Set an environmental variable inside of launchd.

unsetenv key
    Unset an environmental variable inside of launchd.

getenv key
    Get an environmental variable inside of launchd.

export
    Export all of the environmental variables of launchd for use in a shell eval statement.

getrusage self | children
    Get the resource utilization statistics for launchd or the children of launchd.

log [level loglevel] [only | mask loglevels...] Get and set the syslog(3) log level mask. The available log levels are: debug, info, notice, warning, error, critical, alert and emergency.

limit
    [cpu | filesize | data | stack | core | rss | memlock | maxproc | maxfiles] [both [soft | hard]] With no arguments, this command prints all the resource limits of launchd as found via getrlimit(2). When a given resource is specified, it prints the limits for that resource. With a third argument, it sets both the hard and soft limits to that value. With four arguments, the third and forth argument represent the soft and hard limits respectively. See setrlimit(2).

stdout path
    Set the standard out file descriptor to the given path. launchd

stderr path
    Set the standard error file descriptor to the given path. launchd

shutdown
    Tell launchd to prepare for shutdown by removing all jobs.

reloadttys
    Tell launchd to reread /etc/ttys. This option may go away in a future release.

umask [newmask]
    Get or optionally set the umask(2) of launchd.

bslist [PID]
    This prints out Mach bootstrap services and their respective states. While the namespace appears flat, it is in fact hierarchical, thus allowing for certain services to be only available to a subset of processes. The three states a service can be in are active ("A"), in-active ("I") and on-demand ("D").

bsexec PID command [args]
    This executes the given command in the same Mach bootstrap namespace hierachy as the given PID.

help
    Print out a quick usage statement.

ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES

LAUNCHD_SOCKET
    This variable informs launchctl how to find the correct launchd to talk to. If it is missing, launchctl will use a built-in default.

FILES
~/Library/LaunchAgents
    Per-user agents provided by the user.
/Library/LaunchAgents
    Per-user agents provided by the administrator.
/Library/LaunchDaemons
    System wide daemons provided by the administrator.
/System/Library/LaunchAgents
    Mac OS X Per-user agents.
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons
    Mac OS X System wide daemons.

SEE ALSO
launchd.plist(5), launchd.conf(5), launchd(8)