launchctl(1)

NAME
launchctl - Interfaces with launchd

SYNOPSIS
launchctl subcommand [arguments ...]

DESCRIPTION
launchctl interfaces with launchd to manage and inspect daemons, angents and XPC services.

SUBCOMMANDS
launchctl allows for detailed examination of launchd endpoints. A domain manages the execution policy for a collection of services. A service may be thought of as a virtual process that is always available to be spawned in response to demand. Each service has a collection of endpoints, and sending a message to one of those endpoints will cause the service to launch on demand. Domains advertise these endpoints in a shared namespace and may be thought of as synonymous with Mach bootstrap subsets.

Many subcommands in launchctl take a specifier which indicates the target domain or service for the subcommand. This specifier may take one of the following forms:

system/[service-name]
    Targets the system domain or a service within the system domain. The system domain manages the root Mach bootstrap and is considered a privileged execution context. Anyone may read or query the system domain, but root privileges are required to make modifications.

user/<uid>/[service-name]
    Targets the user domain for the given UID or a service within that domain. A user domain may exist independently of a logged-in user. User domains do not exist on iOS.

login/<asid>/[service-name]
    Targets a user-login domain or service within that domain. A user-login domain is created when the user logs in at the GUI and is identified by the audit session identifier associated with that login. If a user domain has an associated login domain, the print subcommand will display the ASID of that login domain. User-login domains do not exist on iOS.

gui/<uid>/[service-name]
    Another form of the login specifier. Rather than specifying a user-login domain by its ASID, this specifier targets the domain based on which user it is associated with and is generally more convenient.

    Note: GUI domains and user domains share many resources. For the purposes of the Mach bootstrap name lookups, they are "flat", so they share the same set of registered names. But they still have discrete sets of services. So when printing the user domain's contents, you may see many Mach bootstrap name registrations from services that exist in the GUI domain for that user, but you will not see the services themselves in that list.

session/<asid>/[service-name]
    Targets the session domain for the given audit session ID or a service within that domain. For more information about audit sessions, see auditon(2) and libbsm(3)

pid/<pid>/[service-name]
    Targets the domain for the given PID or a service within that domain. Each process on the system will have a PID domain associated with it that consists of the XPC services visible to that process which can be reached with xpc_connection_create(3).

SUBCOMMANDS

bootstrap | unbootstrap domain-target service-path
    service-path2 ... Bootstraps or removes services from the specified paths into the target domain. The path may point to an XPC service bundle, a launchd.plist(5), or a directory containing a collection of either. If there were one or more errors while bootstrapping or removing a collection of services, the problematic paths will be printed with the errors that occurred.

enable | disable service-target
    Enables or disables the service in the requested domain. Once a service is disabled, it cannot be loaded in the specified domain until it is once again enabled. This state persists across boots of the device. This subcommand may only target services within the system domain or user and user-login domains.

uncache service-name
    This subcommand instructs launchd to bypass its service cache for the named service and instead read the service's configuration file directly from disk. launchd maintains an in-memory cache of XPC service configuration files to minimize the disk I/O. This subcommand will remove a cached entry so that developers may more rapidly iterate on a service's configuration. It should not ever be used as part of production workflow.

kickstart [-kp]
    service-target Instructs launchd to kickstart the specified service.

    -k  If the service is already running, kill the running instance before restarting the service.

    -p  Upon success, print the PID of the new process or the already-running process to stdout.

attach [-ksx]
    service-target Attaches the system's debugger to the process currently backing the specified service. By default, if the service is not running, this subcommand will block until the service starts.

    -k  If the service is already running, kill the running instance.

    -s  Force the service to start.

    -x  Attach to xpcproxy(3) before it execs and becomes the service process. This flag is generally not useful for anyone but the launchd maintainer.

kill signal-name | signal-number service-target
    Sends the specified signal to the specified service if it is running. The signal number or name (SIGTERM, SIGKILL, etc.) may be specified.

blame service-target
    If the service is running, prints a human-readable string describing why launchd launched the service. Note that services may run for many reasons; this subcommand will only show the most proximate reason. So if a service was run due to a timer firing, this subcommand will print that reason, irrespective of whether there were messages waiting on the service's various endpoints. This subcommand is only intended for debugging and profiling use and its output should not be relied upon in production scenarios.

print domain-target | service-target
    Prints information about the specified service or domain. Domain output includes various properties about the domain as well as a list of services and endpoints in the domain with state pertaining to each. Service output includes various properties of the service, including information about its origin on-disk, its current state, execution context, and last exit status.

print-cache
    Prints the contents of the launchd service cache.

print-disabled
    Prints the list of disabled services.

plist
    [segment,section] Mach-O Prints the the property list embedded in the __TEXT,__info_plist segment/section of the target Mach-O or the specified segment/section.

procinfo pid
    Prints information about the execution context of the specified PID. This information includes Mach task-special ports and exception ports (and when run against a DEVELOPMENT launchd, what names the ports are advertised as in the Mach bootstrap namespace, if they are known to launchd) and audit session context. This subcommand is intended for diagnostic purposes only, and its output should not be relied upon in production scenarios. This command requires root privileges.

hostinfo
    Prints information about the system's host-special ports, including the host-exception port. This subcommand requires root privileges.

resolveport owner-pid port-name
    Given a PID and the name of a Mach port right in that process' port namespace, resolves that port to an endpoint name known to launchd. This subcommand requires root privileges.

examine [tool arg0 arg1 @PID ...]
    Causes launchd to fork(2) itself for examination by a profiling tool and prints the PID of this new instance to stdout. You are responsible for killing this snapshot when it is no longer needed.

    Many profiling tools cannot safely examine launchd because they depend on the functionality it provides. This subcommand creates an effective snapshot of launchd that can be examined independently. Note that on Darwin platforms, fork(2) is implemented such that only the thread which called fork(2) is replicated into the new child process, so this subcommand is not useful for examining any thread other than the main event loop.

    This subcommand takes an optional invocation of a tool to be used on the launchd snapshot. Where you would normally give the PID of the process to be examined in the tool's invocation, instead specify the argument "@PID", and launchctl will substitute that argument with the PID of the launchd snapshot in its subsequent execution of the tool. If used in this form, launchctl will automatically kill the snapshot instance when the examination tool exits.

    This subcommand may only be used against a DEVELOPMENT launchd.

error number
    launchd may return POSIX error codes defined in intro(2) or error codes that it defines. This subcommand will print a human-readable description of an error code of either class and can take error codes specified in any base supported by strtol(3), with each base specified in the manner prescribed by strtol(3).

config system | user parameter value
    Sets persistent configuration information for launchd(8) domains. Only the system domain and user domains may be configured. The location of the persistent storage is an implementation detail, and changes to that storage should only be made through this subcommand. A reboot is required for changes made through this subcommand to take effect.

    Supported configuration parameters are:

    umask
        Sets the umask(2) for services within the target domain to the value specified by value. Note that this value is parsed by strtoul(3) as an octal-encoded number, so there is no need to prefix it with a leading '0'.

    path
        Sets the PATH environment variable for all services within the target domain to the string value. The string value should conform to the format outlined for the PATH environment variable in environ(7). Note that if a service specifies its own PATH, the service-specific environment variable will take precedence.

        NOTE: This facility cannot be used to set general environment variables for all services within the domain. It is intentionally scoped to the PATH environment variable and nothing else for security reasons.

variant
    Prints the launchd variant currently active on the system. Possible variants include RELEASE, DEVELOPMENT and DEBUG.

version
    Prints the launchd version string.

LEGACY SUBCOMMANDS
Subcommands from the previous implementation of launchd are generally available, though some may be unimplemented. Unimplemented subcommands are documented as such.

load | unload [-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. Note that per-user configuration files (LaunchAgents) must be owned by root (if they are located in /Library/LaunchAgents) or the user loading them (if they are located in $HOME/Library/LaunchAgents). All system-wide daemons (LaunchDaemons) must be owned by root. Configuration files must disallow group and world writes. These restrictions are in place for security reasons, as allowing writability to a launchd configuration file allows one to specify which executable will be launched.

    Note that allowing non-root write access to the /System/Library/LaunchDaemons directory WILL render your system unbootable.

    -w  Overrides the Disabled key and sets it to false or true for the load and unload subcommands respectively. In previous versions, this option would modify the configuration file. Now the state of the Disabled key is stored elsewhere on- disk in a location that may not be directly manipulated by any process other than launchd.

    -F  Force the loading or unloading 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. Sessions are only relevant for per-user launchd contexts. Relevant sessions are Aqua (the default), Background and LoginWindow. Background agents may be loaded independently of a GUI login. Aqua agents are loaded only when a user has logged in at the GUI. LoginWindow agents are loaded when the LoginWindow UI is displaying and currently run as root.

    -D domain
        Look for plist(5) files ending in *.plist in the domain given. This option may be thoughts of as expanding into many individual paths depending on the domain name 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 or unload property list files from /System/Library/LaunchDaemons. With a session type passed, it would load from /System/Library/LaunchAgents. Note that launchctl no longer respects the network domain.

    NOTE: Due to bugs in the previous implementation and long-standing client expectations around those bugs, the load and unload subcommands will only return a non-zero exit code due to improper usage. Otherwise, zero is always returned.

submit -l label
    [-p executable] [-o stdout-path] [-e stderr-path] -- command [arg0] [arg1] [...] 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 stdout-path
        Where to send the stdout of the program.

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

remove label
    Remove the job from launchd by label. This subcommand will return immediately and not block until the job has been stopped.

start label
    Start the specified job 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 label
    Stop the specified job by label. If a job is on-demand, launchd may immediately restart the job if launchd finds any criteria that is satisfied.

list
    [-x] [label] With no arguments, list all of the jobs loaded into launchd in three columns. The first column displays the PID of the job if it is running. The second column displays the last exit status of the job. If the number in this column is negative, it represents the negative of the signal which stopped the job. Thus, "-15" would indicate that the job was terminated with SIGTERM. The third column is the job's label. If [label] is specified, prints information about the requested job.

    -x  This flag is no longer supported.

setenv key value
    Specify an environment variable to be set on all future processes launched by launchd in the caller's context.

unsetenv key
    Specify that an environment variable no longer be set on any future processes launched by launchd in the caller's context.

getenv key
    Print the value of an environment variable that launchd would set for all processes launched into the caller's context.

export
    Export all of the environment 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. This subcommand is not implemented.

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. This subcommand is not implemented.

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).

shutdown
    Tell launchd to prepare for shutdown by removing all jobs. This subcommand is not implemented.

umask [newmask]
    Get or optionally set the umask(2) of launchd. This subcommand is not implemented.

bslist
    [PID | ..] [-j] This subcommand is not implemented and has been superseded by the print subcommand, which provides much richer information.

bsexec PID command [args]
    This executes the given command in as similar an execution context as possible to the target PID. Adopted attributes include the Mach bootstrap namespace, exception server and security audit session. It does not modify the process' credentials (UID, GID, etc.) or adopt any environment variables from the target process. It affects only the Mach bootstrap context and directly-related attributes.

asuser UID command [args]
    This executes the given command in as similar an execution context as possible to that of the target user's bootstrap. Adopted attributes include the Mach bootstrap namespace, exception server and security audit session. It does not modify the process' credentials (UID, GID, etc.) or adopt any user-specific environment variables. It affects only the Mach bootstrap context and directly- related attributes.

bstree
    This subcommand is not implemented and has been superseded by the print subcommand, which provides much richer information.

managerpid
    This prints the PID of the launchd which manages the current bootstrap. In prior implementations, there could be multiple launchd processes each managing their own Mach bootstrap subsets. In the current implementation, all bootstraps are managed by one process, so this subcommand will always print "1".

manageruid
    This prints the UID associated with the caller's launchd context.

managername
    This prints the name of the launchd job manager which manages the current launchd context. See LimitLoadToSessionType in launchd.plist(5) for more details.

help
    Print out a quick usage statement.

DEPRECATED AND REMOVED FUNCTIONALITY
launchctl no longer has an interactive mode, nor does it accept commands from stdin. The /etc/launchd.conf file is no longer consulted for subcommands to run during early boot time; this functionality was removed for security considerations. While it was documented that $HOME/.launchd.conf would be consulted prior to setting up a user's session, this functionality was never implemented.

launchd no longer uses Unix domain sockets for communication, so the LAUNCHD_SOCKET environment variable is no longer relevant and is not set.

launchd no longer loads configuration files from the network

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
    OS X Per-user agents.
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons
    OS X System wide daemons.

EXIT STATUS
launchctl will exit with status 0 if the subcommand succeeded. Otherwise, it will exit with an error code that can be given to the error subcommand to be decoded into human-readable form.

SEE ALSO
launchd.plist(5), launchd.conf(5), launchd(8), audit(8), setaudit_addr(2)