launchctl.1   [plain text]


.Dd September 30, 2004
.Dt launchctl 1
.Os Darwin
.Sh NAME
.Nm launchctl
.Nd Interfaces with launchd
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Ar subcommand Op Ar arguments ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm 
interfaces with
.Nm launchd
to load, unload daemons/agents and generally control
.Nm launchd .
.Nm
supports taking subcommands on the command line, interactively or even redirected from standard input.
These commands can be stored in
.Nm $HOME/.launchd.conf
or
.Nm /etc/launchd.conf
to be read at the time
.Nm launchd
starts.
.Sh SUBCOMMANDS
.Bl -tag -width -indent
.It Xo Ar load Op Fl wF
.Ar paths ...
.Xc
Load the specified configuration files or directories of configuration files.
.Bl -tag -width -indent
.It Fl w
Remove the disabled key and write the configuration files back out to disk.
.It Fl F
Force the loading of the plist. Ignore the Disabled key.
.El
.It Xo Ar unload Op Fl w
.Ar paths ...
.Xc
Unload the specified configuration files or directories of configuration files.
.Bl -tag -width -indent
.It Fl w
Add the disabled key and write the configuration files back out to disk.
.El
.It Ar start Ar joblabels ...
Start the specified jobs by label.
.It Ar stop Ar joblabels ...
Stop the specified jobs by label. Jobs may restart automatically if demand driven.
.It Ar list
List all of the jobs loaded into
.Nm launchd .
.It Ar setenv Ar key Ar value
Set an environmental variable inside of
.Nm launchd .
.It Ar unsetenv Ar key
Unset an environmental variable inside of
.Nm launchd .
.It Ar getenv Ar key
Get an environmental variable inside of
.Nm launchd .
.It Ar export
Export all of the environmental variables of
.Nm launchd
for use in a shell eval statement.
.It Ar getrusage self | children
Get the resource utilization statistics for
.Nm launchd
or the children of
.Nm launchd .
.It Xo Ar log
.Op Ar level loglevel
.Op Ar only | mask loglevels...
.Xc
Get and set the
.Xr syslog 3
log level mask. The available log levels are: debug, info, notice, warning, error, critical, alert and emergency.
.It Xo Ar limit
.Op Ar cpu | filesize | data | stack | core | rss | memlock | maxproc | maxfiles
.Op Ar both Op Ar soft | hard
.Xc
With no arguments, this command prints all the resource limits of
.Nm launchd
as found via
.Xr 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
.Xr setrlimit 2 .
.It Ar stdout path
Set the standard out file descriptor to the given path.
.Nm launchd
.It Ar stderr path
Set the standard error file descriptor to the given path.
.Nm launchd
.It Ar shutdown
Tell
.Nm launchd
to prepare for shutdown by removing all jobs.
.It Ar reloadttys
Tell
.Nm launchd
to reread /etc/ttys. This option may go away in a future release.
.It Ar umask Op Ar newmask
Get or optionally set the
.Xr umask 2
of
.Nm launchd .
.It Ar help
Print out a quick usage statement.
.El
.Sh ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES
.Bl -tag -width -indent
.It Pa 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.
.El
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width "/System/Library/LaunchDaemons" -compact
.It Pa ~/Library/LaunchAgents
Per-user agents provided by the user.
.It Pa /Library/LaunchAgents
Per-user agents provided by the administrator.
.It Pa /Library/LaunchDaemons
System wide daemons provided by the administrator.
.It Pa /System/Library/LaunchAgents
Mac OS X Per-user agents.
.It Pa /System/Library/LaunchDaemons
Mac OS X System wide daemons.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO 
.Xr launchd.plist 5 ,
.Xr launchd.conf 5 ,
.Xr launchd 8