IMac – Launchd – Run as if you’re logged in as a user using sudo

imaclaunchdmacmacos

Is there a way to do this?

Basically I'm trying to run a script that needs to launch a program.

Putting the script in /Library/LaunchDaemons works fine, but everything gets run as if its the root user. This doesn't work because it needs to run as if its a real user, but using the sudo command.

So I moved the script to ~/Library/LaunchDaemons but now it won't launch the program, presumably because its getting run as the user and not with sudo permissions.

So I'm stuck. Logging in as the user and going to a terminal and running:

sudo my_command_which_launches_a_program

Works absolutely fine, and exactly how its meant to work. So I want to basically emulate that, but in a Launchd script, if possible.

Thanks

Best Answer

You put the plist into /Library/LaunchDaemons but edit it to say which user the script will run as

The key you need to add is UserName. For example I run a newserver as user _news

<key>UserName</key>
<string>_news</string>

Documented in Apple's launchd man page

Related Solutions

How to write to Notification Center from a launchd command

You can send to Notification Centre using Applescript (osascript )in you shell script.

There is a very good thread here that explains the various ways of either running only Applescript as a shell script or being able to mix applescript in with bash, for example.

I created a shell script with:

#!/bin/bash
theDate=`date '+DATE: %m/%d/%y TIME:%H:%M:%S'`

osascript -e "display notification \"$theDate\" with title \"test 1\" subtitle \" sub 1\""

I then created a LaunchDaemon in the same way you have and loaded it without sudo.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>notifTest</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Users/userName/Documents/notify.sh</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>StartInterval</key>
    <integer>90</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

Every 90 seconds I get a notification:

enter image description here

The notification icon you will notice is the Script Editors one. Which means the Notification is controlled by the Script Editors Notification settings in Notification Centre

MacOS – Run script on networked user login

Setting the Working Directory for a Script

You should use a launchd agent job placed in the /Library/LaunchAgents folder.

The advice you mention, quoted below, is aimed at the executable or script being launched. You should let launchd manage the working directory for you.

A daemon or agent launched by launchd SHOULD NOT do the following as a part of their startup initialization:

Setup the user ID or group ID.

Setup the working directory.

chroot(2)

setsid(2)

Close "stray" file descriptors.

Change stdio(3) to /dev/null.

Setup resource limits with setrusage(2).

Setup priority with setpriority(2).

Ignore the SIGTERM signal.

The launchd job ticket is responsible for requesting the desired working directory; use the WorkingDirectory key to set the directory. The directory will be automatically set before your executable or script is launched.

A full description of the available keys in a launchd job ticket are available in the launchd.plist(5) manual page.

Setting the Working Directory for the User

Consider providing a modified ~/.bashrc or other shell login script to provide a known current working directly.