If you’ve ever wanted to get your Mac geek on, but were afraid to try, here’s the tool to move you from average Mac user to power user. In a word, Launchd.
Simply put, launchd in OS X is a management tool that starts and stops and manages various and sundry apps, scripts, and processes on your Mac. Here’s how to control launched the easy way.
Launch Me, Baby, One More Time
Launchd in OS X is very powerful, but it’s also the domain of the mostly geeky. LaunchControl is the Mac app that lets you create, launch, and manage launchd services with ease.
Think of LaunchControl as a simple fronted to launched. Open it up and it displays all the launchd services in a single window.
LaunchControl means what the name implies. Use it to enable or disable services with a click.
You’d be surprised to see how many launchd services are running on a modern Mac these days.
LaunchControl gives you options to edit launchd services, and gives you access to each launchd configuration key.
Normal default mode looks like this.
LaunchControl displays rules, transactions, and which program is being used. The Expert mode gives you more options for each launched service.
Create your own launched service and the app analyzes your job, tell if it should work or not, and, if not, help find the problem.
Launchd in OS X supports nearly 40 documented keys, and LaunchControl gives you access for each one in an annotated palette panel. Adding keys is drag and drop.
If all this sounds a bit too Geeky for your tastes, back up to Automator, which is also built-in to OS X. It can help you create your own useful apps and it’s free.
