Interfaces with launchd to load, unload daemons/agents and generally control launchd. launchctl supports taking subcommands on the command line, interactively or even redirected from standard input.
Syntax
launchctl [subcommand [arguments ...]]
SPECIFIERS (Target domain/service)
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.
To discover a user’s UID, run the command: id -u username
where username is the full user account name.
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 domain-target [service-path service-path2 ...] | service-target
Bootstrap a domain/service (equivalent to Load in the legacy syntax).
Services may be specified as a series of paths or a service identifier.
Paths may point to XPC service bundles, launchd.plist(5) s, or a directory(s)
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.
If no paths or service target are specified, this commands will bootstrap a domain
specified as a domain target.
Some domains will implicitly bootstrap pre-defined paths as part of their creation.
bootout domain-target [service-path service-path2 ...] | service-target
Remove domain/service (equivalent to unload in the legacy syntax).
Services may be specified as a series of paths or a service identifier.
Paths may point to XPC service bundles, launchd.plist(5) s, or a directory(s) 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.
If no paths or service target are specified, this commands willremove a domain
specified as a domain target.
enable service-target
Enable the service in the requested domain. This subcommand may only
target services within the system domain or user and user-login domains.
disable service-target
Disable 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.
debug service-target [--program program path] [--guard-malloc]
[--malloc-stack-logging] [--debug-libraries]
[--introspection-libraries] [--NSZombie] [--32] [--stdin]
[--stdout] [--stderr] [--environment] [--] [argv0 argv1 argv2
...]
Configures the next invocation of a service for debugging. This subcommand allows
you to temporarily replace the main executable of the service with one at
a different path, enable libgmalloc(3), set environment variables, set the argument
vector and more.
This is a convenient alternative to editing the launchd.plist(5) for the service and
then reloading it, as the additional debugging properties are cleared once the service has
run once with them.
--program program-path
Instructs launchd(8) to use program-path as the service’s executable.
--guard-malloc
Turns on libgmalloc(3) for the service.
--malloc-stack-logging
Turns on malloc(3) stack logging for the service.
--malloc-nano-allocator
Turns on the malloc(3) nano allocator for the service.
--debug-libraries
Sets the DYLD_IMAGE_SUFFIX for the service to "_debug", which prefers the debug variants
of libraries if they exist. See dyld(1) for more information.
--introspection-libraries
Adds /usr/lib/system/introspection to the DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable
for the service. This causes the system to prefer the introspection
variants of libraries if they exist.
--NSZombie
Enables NSZombie.
--32 Runs the service in the appropriate 32-bit architecture.
Only available on 64-bit platforms.
--stdin [stdin-path]
Sets the service’s standard input to be stdin-path. If no file is given,
uses the current terminal as the service’s standard input.
If stdin-path does not exist, it is created.
--stdout [stdout-path]
Sets the service’s standard input to be stdout-path.
If no file is given, uses the current terminal as the service’s standard input.
If stdout-path does not exist, it is created.
--stderr [stderr-path]
Sets the service’s standard input to be stderr-path.
If no file is given, uses the current terminal as the service’s standard input.
If stderr-path does not exist, it is created.
--environment VARIABLE0=value VARIABLE1=value ...
Set the given environment variables on the service.
-- argv0 argv1 ...
Any arguments following the -- are given to the service
as its argument vector.
IMPORTANT: These arguments replace the service’s
default argument vector; they are not merged in any
way. The first argument following -- is given as the
initial (zeroth) element of the service’s argument vec-
tor. As with the ProgramArguments launchd.plist(5) key,
you should read carefully and understand the execve(2)
man page.
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.
IMPORTANT: This output is NOT API in any sense at all. Do NOT
rely on the structure or information emitted for ANY reason. It
may change from release to release without warning.
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 seg-
ment/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 substi tute 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.
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-spe-
cific environment variable will take precedence.
NOTE: This facility cannot be used to set general envi-
ronment variables for all services within the domain.
It is intentionally scoped to the PATH environment
variable and nothing else for security reasons.
reboot [system|userspace|halt|logout|apps|reroot mount-point]
Instructs launchd to begin tearing down userspace. With no argument
given or with the system argument given, launchd will make
the reboot(2) system call when userspace has been completely
torn down. With the halt argument given, launchd will make the
reboot(2) system call when userspace has been completely torn
down and pass the RB_HALT flag, halting the system and not initiating
a reboot.
With the userspace argument given, launchd will re-exec itself
when userspace has been torn down and bring userspace back up.
This is useful for rebooting the system quickly under conditions
where kernel data structures or hardware do not need to be reinitialized.
With the reroot argument given, launchd will perform a userspace
shutdown as with the userspace argument, but it will exec a copy
of launchd from the specified mount-point. This mechanism is a
light-weight way of changing boot partitions. As part of this
process, launchd will make mount-point the new root partition
and bring userspace up as if the kernel had designated
mount-point as the root partition.
IMPORTANT: This type of reboot will, in no way, affect the
already-running kernel on the host. Therefore, when using this
option to switch to another volume, you should only target vol-
umes whose userspace stacks are compatible with the already-run-
ning kernel.
NOTE: As of the date of this writing, this option does not com-
pletely work.
With the logout argument given, launchd will tear down the
caller’s GUI login session in a manner similar to a logout ini-
tiated from the Apple menu. The key difference is that a logout
initiated through this subcommand will be much faster since it
will not give apps a chance to display modal dialogs to block
logout indefinitely; therefore there is data corruption risk to
using this option. Only use it when you know you have no unsaved
data in your running apps.
With the apps argument given, launchd will terminate all apps
running in the caller’s GUI login session that did not come from
a launchd.plist(5) on-disk. Apps like Finder, Dock and Syste-
mUIServer will be unaffected. Apps are terminated in the same
manner as the logout argument, and all the same caveats apply.
-s When rebooting the machine (either a full reboot or
userspace reboot), brings the subsequent boot session
up in single-user mode.
error [posix|mach|bootstrap] code
Prints a human-readable string of the given error code. By
default, launchctl will attempt to guess which error domain the
code given belongs to. The caller may optionally specify which
domain (either posix, mach, or bootstrap) to interpret the given
code as an error from that subsystem.
variant Prints the launchd variant currently active on the system. Pos-
sible variants include RELEASE, DEVELOPMENT and DEBUG.
version Prints the launchd version string.
MORE 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 searchpath] 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 differ-
ent 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 searchpath
Load or unload all plist(5) files in the search path given.
This option may be thought of as expanding into many
individual paths depending on the search path given.
Valid search paths include "system," "local," and "all."
When providing a session type, an additional search path
is available for use called "user." For example,
without a session type given, "-D system" would load from
or unload all 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 search path.
In a previous version of launchd, these search paths
were called "domains", hence -D. The word "domain" is
now used for a totally different concept.
NOTE: Due to bugs in the previous implementation and long-stand-
ing 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 sub-
command 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 repre-
sents 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 pro-
cesses 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 con-
text 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 con-
text 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 con-
text 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 sub-
sets. 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 con-
text.
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.
Every launchd task has a corresponding .plist file.
System tasks will run whenever the system is running, even if no user is logged in. They will be started with "root" privileges.
/Library/LaunchDaemons/
System tasks may also be setup to run if ANY user is logged in:
/Library/LaunchAgents/
User tasks will run only if the user is logged in, and will be executed with the privileges of that user:
~/Library/LaunchAgents/
~/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 macOS Per-user agents.
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons macOS System wide daemons.launchd no longer loads configuration files from the network
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.
The syntax for launchctl changed in macOS 10.10 (Yosemite) the examples below show both the old and new syntax for starting and stopping launch scripts (services). The new syntax generally does not require sudo.
Display the launch scripts for all users that are currently loaded/running (legacy syntax):
$ sudo launchctl list
Display the launch scripts that are currently loaded for user ID 504 (new syntax):
$ launchctl print gui/504
Display the launch scripts that are currently loaded/running for root:
$ launchctl print system
Disable the Amazon Music App daemon, to re-enable this, replace unload with load in the command:
$ launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.amazon.music.plist
To make this permanent edit that .plist file and change KEEP ALIVE and LAUNCH AT LOAD to FALSE. Then lock the file. This will prevent the Amazon app from running at all.
Disable Adobe CC services, to re-enable this, replace unload with load in the command:
$ launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchAgents/com.adobe.AdobeCreativeCloud.plist
Enable remote SSH login (legacy syntax):
$ sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist
Enable remote SSH login for login 504 (new syntax):
$ launchctl bootstrap gui/504 /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist
Disable remote SSH login (legacy syntax):
$ sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist
Disable remote SSH login for login 504 (new syntax):
$ launchctl bootout gui/504 /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist
Disable the macOS Notification Centre (legacy syntax):
$ launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.notificationcenterui.plist
$ killall NotificationCenter
Disable the macOS Notification Centre for login 504 (new syntax):
$ launchctl bootout gui/504 /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.notificationcenterui.plist
$ killall NotificationCenterAn alternative is to turn on the Notification “Do Not Disturb” from the Menu Bar of macOS which lasts for 1 day.
Re-enable the macOS Notification Centre (legacy syntax):
$ launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.notificationcenterui.plist
Then double-click "/System/Library/CoreServices/Notification Center” to launch it again.
Re-enable the macOS Notification Centre for login 504 (new syntax):
$ launchctl bootstrap gui/504 /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.notificationcenterui.plist
Then double-click "/System/Library/CoreServices/Notification Center” to launch it again.
“A good rule for rocket experimenters to follow is this: always assume that it will explode” ~ 'Astronautics' issue 38, October 1937
csrutil - Configure System Integrity Protection (SIP).
sysctl - Get or set kernel state.
nvram - Manipulate firmware variables.
The macOS equivalent of Windows services is Launchd.
The macOS equivalent of services.msc on Windows is launchctl.
Launchd.info - Description of launchd, agents and daemons.
Launched - An online launchd plist generator.
LaunchControl - A GUI .plist editor with features to create, manage and debug Mac services.
The daemons managed by launchd can be on demand or can be triggered periodically (this is configurable in launchd.plist).
launchd.plist(5), launchd.conf(5), launchd(8).