Starting Automator Script with LaunchAgent - macos

I built a job by Automator to clear the downloads folder and empty the trash. When i start the created app by double click, it starts correctly. But it has to be transferred to other computer in our company and i dont want to give the user the job to launch the app.
So i created this LaunchAgent script to start the app.
<?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.herpag.aufraeumen.plist</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/Users/hansthiele/Applications/Aufraeumen.app</string>
</array>
<key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
<dict>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>45</integer>
<key>Hour</key>
<integer>13</integer>
</dict>
</dict>
</plist>
My problem is now, that the console tells me that the job is started, but nothing happens. The downloads are not cleared and the trash is still full. Also the error.log is empty.

There are 2 issues:
The Label argument must be specified without the .plist extension.
The path must represent the executable rather than the application container. In case of an Automator app the executable is named Application Stub (unlike Applet in an AppleScript app). It's assumed that hansthiele is the real short username of the current user.
Try
<?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.herpag.aufraeumen</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/Users/hansthiele/Applications/Aufraeumen.app/Contents/MacOS/Application Stub</string>
</array>
<key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
<dict>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>45</integer>
<key>Hour</key>
<integer>13</integer>
</dict>
</dict>
</plist>

Related

Launchctl not working / logging after being loaded

Here is my file, I am not getting anything logged, although the loading is apparently successful, as I can see it running with the list command;
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>com.whtDaily.gexUW</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/Users/x/Dropbox/ai/getData.sh</string>
</array>
<key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
<dict>
<key>Hour</key>
<integer>22</integer>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>15</integer>
</dict>
<key>RunAtLoad</key><true/>
<key>StandardErrorPath</key>
<string>/Users/x/Dropbox/ai/logs/daily.err</string>
<key>StandardOutPath</key>
<string>/Users/x/Dropbox/ai/logs/daily.out</string>
</dict>
</plist>
I am also not clear if I need to running 'start' after load, or does that happen automatically since I have the 'RunAtLoad' key set to true? I have tried calling start after load, and not with no luck.
This plist file is in the /Library/LaunchAgents directory and I am calling with load and unload with sudo.
The sh file was not executable.
chmod +x getData.sh
did the trick.

launchd doesn't retrieve birthdays

I've made an Automator app that finds people that has birthdays on a given day and saves the names of those in a text-file. It runs in a bash script that also alerts me when someone has a birthday. This works fine when i initiate the script from terminal. But when it runs through my ~/Library/LaunchAgents the birthday list is always empty. Does anybody have a clue, what could be the cause of this?
this is my agent-script
<?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>dk.emmajohnsen.birthdaygreetings</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/bin/bash</string>
<string>/Users/Emma/Projects/scripts/project_happy_birthday/orchestrateBirthdayAlert</string>
</array>
<key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
<dict>
<key>Hour</key>
<integer>08</integer>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>17</integer>
</dict>
</dict>
</plist>

rsync with launchd on OS X always gives me error code 255

I want to rsync my /var/repo backup to a remote machine when it changes.
I made a ssh key pairs to make my machine can ssh login to remote without password(ignore details).
I added a file com.ph.rsync2.plist in ~/Library/LaunchAgents.
The content is
<?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.ph.rsync2.plist</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/usr/bin/rsync</string>
<string>-avz</string>
<string>--rsh=ssh</string>
<string>/var/repo</string>
<string>flora#192.168.19.28:/var/ph_backups/</string>
</array>
<key>WatchPaths</key>
<array>
<string>/var/repo</string>
</array>
</dict>
Then I launchctl load com.ph.rysnc2.plist.
When /var/repo has any change, it will trigger rsync to work
but I always get the error log in Console.app
It reads like
11/3/15 2:15:26.399 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]:
(com.ph.rsync2.plist) Service only ran for 1 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 9 seconds.
And I tried to move the rsync commands to a script, then let launchd exec my script. but it's still the same
I can't figure out which part of settings make all these fail.
Anyone can give me a clue?
Comments will mess up the formatting, so I'll post how to setup the StandardErrorPath key as an answer.
Modify your job definition like this:
<?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.ph.rsync2.plist</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/usr/bin/rsync</string>
<string>-avz</string>
<string>--rsh=ssh</string>
<string>/var/repo</string>
<string>flora#192.168.19.28:/var/ph_backups/</string>
</array>
<key>StandardErrorPath</key>
<string>/tmp/com.ph.rsync2.plist.stderr</string>
<key>WatchPaths</key>
<array>
<string>/var/repo</string>
</array>
</dict>
</plist>
Check the file /tmp/com.ph.rsync2.plist.stderr after reloading and starting the job.

how to run an app using launchd?

I need to run an mac app daily without any user interaction using launchd, i created a .plist file and pasted it in /system/LaunchDaemons and after that how to execute the plist file, can any one please tell me the step by step working process on how to work with launchd it will helpful for me, I pasted my .plist file below.
<?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>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
<key>KeepAlive</key>
<true/>
<key>Label</key>
<string>myapp.restart</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/Applications/myapp.app</string>
</array>
<key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
<dict>
<key>Hour</key>
<integer>16</integer>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>40</integer>
</dict>
</dict>
</plist>
You'll probably need the name of your program like this rather than ProgramArguments:
<key>Program</key>
<string>/Applications/myapp.app/Contents/MacOS/myapp</string>

Mac LaunchAgent PLIST not starting

I am trying to develop a Mac LaunchAgent and am testing with this, which should start the console:
<?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>KeepAlive</key>
<true/>
<key>Label</key>
<string>com.depthmine.test</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/Applications/Utilities/Console.app/Contents/MacOS/Console</string>
</array>
</dict>
</plist>
The file appears to load (no errors in the Terminal) but the console does not start and there does not seem to be a process in Terminal either. I also tried a PHP script and that didn't start either.

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