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Automation · medium

4. launchd Agents and Services

Running background jobs reliably on macOS.

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macOS uses launchd to start and supervise system daemons and user agents. A property-list configuration describes the program, environment, triggers, output paths, and whether it should restart. User agents run in a user's session; system daemons run outside a login session.

Use `launchctl` to load, bootstrap, inspect, and stop jobs. Keep service files explicit and least-privileged, and write logs somewhere the owning user or service can access.

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  1. 1. What is launchd responsible for?

  2. 2. What commonly describes a launchd job?

  3. 3. What is a user agent's usual scope?

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