Easily create a LaunchDaemon for use on a Mac. You choose the identifier, the name, the version, and the target script/app (.sh, .bash, .py, .app) to create a .pkg containing all necessary files with correct permissions. Upon installation of the resulting .pkg, the target script/app will load automatically at time of install, as well as when the system starts.
You can download a .pkg from the release section containing a pre-built .app which installs under the /Applications directory. Just install the .pkg, and run "/Applications/Simple LaunchDaemon Creator.app" to start.
Alternatively, you can clone this repository and simply run the simple_launchdaemon_creator.sh from Terminal.
git clone https://github.com/ryangball/simple-launchdaemon-creator.git
cd simple-launchdaemon-creator
./simple_launchdaemon_creator.sh- Platypus: A developer tool that creates native Mac applications from command line scripts such as shell scripts or Python, Perl, Ruby, Tcl, JavaScript and PHP programs.
- You must install the command line tool associated with Platypus. Open Platypus, in the Menu Bar choose "Platypus" > "Preferences" and click the "Install" button to install the Platypus command line tool.
To build the application yourself you can simply run the build.sh script and specify a version number for both the .app and .pkg. The resulting .pkg will include the .app with a target of /Applications just like any of the releases. If you do not include a version number as a parameter then version 1.0 will be assigned as the default. You can modify the simple_launchdaemon_creator.sh script first and build the .app afterward if you'd like.
git clone https://github.com/ryangball/simple-launchdaemon-creator.git
cd simple-launchdaemon-creator
./build.sh 1.0Example LaunchDaemon plist that gets created:
<?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>Label</key>
<string>com.github.ryangball.sample</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/bin/sh</string>
<string>/Library/Scripts/Sample.sh</string>
</array>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
<key>StandardErrorPath</key>
<string>/Library/Logs/com.github.ryangball.sample.log</string>
<key>StandardOutPath</key>
<string>/Library/Logs/com.github.ryangball.sample.log</string>
</dict>
</plist>Simple LaunchDaemon Creator tries to determine the ProgramArguments from the shebang line if your target is a script. So you should include a valid shebang as the first line of your script. If your target is an app, /usr/bin/open is used.
Supported shebangs (request something):
#!/bin/bash#!/bin/sh#!/usr/bin/python
The RunAtLoad key is set to true. This will start the LaunchDaemon at system startup.
The main LaunchDaemon plist is automatically set to have stdout and stderr combined and written to /Library/Logs/YOUR_CHOSEN_IDENTIFIER.log for ease of troubleshooting.
Applications that require the GUI typically need to run in the user's context which means after a user is logged in. This is problematic (not impossible) for a LaunchDaemon. For example if you use a LaunchDaemon to open Google Chrome.app, the LaunchDaemon will attempt to launch Chrome before a user is even logged in which will fail.
Not all applications will have this issue (non GUI apps). When creating a LaunchDaemon with an app as a target, you will be warned that a LaunchAgent might be better.
Of course there are a lot of variables that go into LaunchDaemons. This is creates a very simple LaunchDaemon with the RunAtLoad key set to true. If you need to customize this, feel free to clone the repository and make any modifications you feel necessary.
For issues that you think are worth looking into, you can submit an issue.
If you think additional functionality would be beneficial, you can create a feature request by creating an issue and noting that it is a feature request.