launchd 0.3.0

pythonic interface for macOS launchd

launchd is a pythonic interface to interact with macOS’s launchd. It provides access to basic querying and interaction with launchd. It is implemented using the Objective C ServiceManagement framework as well as the launchd command line utility. Therefore, this python package can only be used on macOS

The python objective C bridge contains some special types. This package strips off all non built-in type information and returns pure python data.

Examples

The relevant import statement is:

import launchd

Listing all launchd jobs:

for job in launchd.jobs():
    print(job.label, job.pid, job.laststatus, job.properties, job.plistfilename)

Find the pid and laststatus of a job:

>>> launchd.LaunchdJob("com.apple.Finder").pid
278

>>> launchd.LaunchdJob("com.apple.Finder").laststatus
0

>>> launchd.LaunchdJob("com.example.fubar").pid
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "launchd/launchctl.py", line 78, in refresh
    raise ValueError("job '%s' does not exist" % self.label)
ValueError: job 'com.example.fubar' does not exist

Detect if a job exists:

>>> launchd.LaunchdJob("com.example.fubar").exists()
False

launchd job properties (these come directly from launchd and NOT the .plist files):

>>> launchd.LaunchdJob("com.apple.Finder").properties
{'OnDemand': 1, 'PID': 278, 'PerJobMachServices': {'com.apple.coredrag': 0,
'com.apple.axserver': 0, 'com.apple.CFPasteboardClient': 0,
'com.apple.tsm.portname': 0}, 'LimitLoadToSessionType': 'Aqua',
'Program': '/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder',
'TimeOut': 30, 'LastExitStatus': 0, 'Label': 'com.apple.Finder',
'MachServices': {'com.apple.finder.ServiceProvider': 10}}

>>> launchd.LaunchdJob("com.apple.Finder").properties["OnDemand"]
1

Find all plist filenames of currently running jobs:

for job in launchd.jobs():
   if job.pid is None or job.plistfilename is None:
      continue
   print(job.plistfilename)

Job properties of a given job (this uses the actual .plist file):

>>> launchd.plist.read("com.apple.kextd")
{'ProgramArguments': ['/usr/libexec/kextd'], 'KeepAlive': {'SuccessfulExit': False},
'POSIXSpawnType': 'Interactive', 'MachServices': {'com.apple.KernelExtensionServer':
{'HostSpecialPort': 15}}, 'Label': 'com.apple.kextd'}

Installation

$ pip install launchd

or, if you want to work using the source tarball:

$ python setup.py install

Requirements

• OS X >= 10.6

• Python 3.4+

Release history

0.3.0 (June 2021)

• changed: create directory hierarchy for plist file if not present. issue #6

• improved: added automated flake8 tests, check-manifest and safety checks

• changed: moved basic CI to GitHub actions

0.2.0 (March 2021)

• drop python 2.x, 3.2, 3.3 support

• fix plistlib calls (issue #4)

0.1.2 (September 2020)

• added tox.ini for easier testing accross interpreter versions

• added travis test setup

• fixed incompatibility with launchctl in test code

• fixed a typo in the README

0.1.1 (November 2013)

• Fixed a bug in launchd.plist.read() when no scope was specified

0.1 (November 2013)

• Focus: initial public release