Launchd is this amazing replacement for several venerable Unix startup scripts and methodologies for managing daemons and processes. I've been using it for a couple of key functions since I discovered it last year, and if you have similar needs, I highly recommend you check it out.
Lingon is an open source Cocoa application from Peter Borg that makes the creation of launchd configuration files a piece of cake... but why would you want to? The first one I made was in response to problems I was having last year with Quicksilver, which seemed to crash every few times I used it. I was always have to relaunch Quicksilver, which became a pain in the butt. Then I read about Launchd, and it became my new best friend.
There's a shareware product called something like "KeepItAlive" that does the same thing I used Lingon for... namely, I set up a process that watches to make sure Quicksilver is running. It checks every 60 seconds or so (this is configurable in your launchd file), and if it doesn't find Quicksilver, launchd starts it up again.
At the moment, this is the primary use to which I put Lingon, and though Quicksilver no longer crashes with any regularity or frequency, I'm no using Lingon to keep an eye on Phlink. Our kitchen Mac acts as an answering machine, with Ovolab Phlink running on it. If Phlink goes down, so does our answering service. So, I set up a Lingon script to make sure that doesn't happen. Similarly, Phlink can send out notices through Bonjour to other Macs on the network that have Phlink installed, passing along such info as the Caller ID and phone number. This is highly useful in letting me know who's phoning, but again it's only reliable if Phlink is always running on my basement Mac.
You get the idea... if you have any sort of process that needs to stay running, or begin running at a certain time or in response to a certain event, Lingon is an excellent way of leveraging Apple's new Launchd service. As such, Launchd can replace your use of the StartupItems folder and can also replace your use of the venerable cron table. The Lingon site has a lot of good information about Launchd itself, along with pointers to where you can learn more.
Lingon: Make Launchd Your Own Startup Manager
Published August 4th, 2006
Lingon is a graphical interface for creating launchd config files
Launchd is this amazing replacement for several venerable Unix startup scripts and methodologies for managing daemons and processes. I've been using it for a couple of key functions since I discovered it last year, and if you have similar needs, I highly recommend you check it out.
Lingon is an open source Cocoa application from Peter Borg that makes the creation of launchd configuration files a piece of cake... but why would you want to? The first one I made was in response to problems I was having last year with Quicksilver, which seemed to crash every few times I used it. I was always have to relaunch Quicksilver, which became a pain in the butt. Then I read about Launchd, and it became my new best friend.
There's a shareware product called something like "KeepItAlive" that does the same thing I used Lingon for... namely, I set up a process that watches to make sure Quicksilver is running. It checks every 60 seconds or so (this is configurable in your launchd file), and if it doesn't find Quicksilver, launchd starts it up again.
At the moment, this is the primary use to which I put Lingon, and though Quicksilver no longer crashes with any regularity or frequency, I'm no using Lingon to keep an eye on Phlink. Our kitchen Mac acts as an answering machine, with Ovolab Phlink running on it. If Phlink goes down, so does our answering service. So, I set up a Lingon script to make sure that doesn't happen. Similarly, Phlink can send out notices through Bonjour to other Macs on the network that have Phlink installed, passing along such info as the Caller ID and phone number. This is highly useful in letting me know who's phoning, but again it's only reliable if Phlink is always running on my basement Mac.
You get the idea... if you have any sort of process that needs to stay running, or begin running at a certain time or in response to a certain event, Lingon is an excellent way of leveraging Apple's new Launchd service. As such, Launchd can replace your use of the StartupItems folder and can also replace your use of the venerable cron table. The Lingon site has a lot of good information about Launchd itself, along with pointers to where you can learn more.
Launchd is this amazing replacement for several venerable Unix startup scripts and methodologies for managing daemons and processes. I've been using it for a couple of key functions since I discovered it last year, and if you have similar needs, I highly recommend you check it out.
Lingon is an open source Cocoa application from Peter Borg that makes the creation of launchd configuration files a piece of cake... but why would you want to? The first one I made was in response to problems I was having last year with Quicksilver, which seemed to crash every few times I used it. I was always have to relaunch Quicksilver, which became a pain in the butt. Then I read about Launchd, and it became my new best friend.
There's a shareware product called something like "KeepItAlive" that does the same thing I used Lingon for... namely, I set up a process that watches to make sure Quicksilver is running. It checks every 60 seconds or so (this is configurable in your launchd file), and if it doesn't find Quicksilver, launchd starts it up again.
At the moment, this is the primary use to which I put Lingon, and though Quicksilver no longer crashes with any regularity or frequency, I'm no using Lingon to keep an eye on Phlink. Our kitchen Mac acts as an answering machine, with Ovolab Phlink running on it. If Phlink goes down, so does our answering service. So, I set up a Lingon script to make sure that doesn't happen. Similarly, Phlink can send out notices through Bonjour to other Macs on the network that have Phlink installed, passing along such info as the Caller ID and phone number. This is highly useful in letting me know who's phoning, but again it's only reliable if Phlink is always running on my basement Mac.
You get the idea... if you have any sort of process that needs to stay running, or begin running at a certain time or in response to a certain event, Lingon is an excellent way of leveraging Apple's new Launchd service. As such, Launchd can replace your use of the StartupItems folder and can also replace your use of the venerable cron table. The Lingon site has a lot of good information about Launchd itself, along with pointers to where you can learn more.
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