I'm trying to run aerender (After Effects' command-line renderer) via launchd to render a video on a timed interval. The command works fine in Terminal. In launchd – even when I use screen -d -m ... – it always exits early. Here's my setup.
Skip to bottom for things I've already tried.
plist for launchd:
<?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>com.home.VideoGenerator</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/Users/home/Developer/VideoGenerator/exec/render.sh</string>
</array>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
<key>KeepAlive</key>
<false/>
<key>StartInterval</key>
<integer>300</integer>
<key>StandardErrorPath</key>
<string>/var/log/com.home.VideoGenerator.err.log</string>
<key>StandardOutPath</key>
<string>/var/log/com.home.VideoGenerator.out.log</string>
</dict>
</plist>
render.sh script:
#!/bin/bash
/Applications/Adobe\ After\ Effects\ CC\ 2018/aerender -project /Users/home/Developer/VideoGenerator/resource/video.aep -comp ExportMe -output /Users/home/Developer/VideoGenerator/output/video.mov -OMtemplate Output
Output:
Here is what normal output looks like, when I run ./render.sh from the command line:
aerender version 15.0.1x73
PROGRESS: Launching After Effects...
PROGRESS: ...After Effects successfully launched
PROGRESS: Adding specified comp to Render Queue
PROGRESS: 4/2/18 8:41:57 AM PDT: Starting composition ExportMe.
...
This is truncated. It also outputs composition settings and render progress, always successful. Nothing useful for this purpose.
Here's the logged output when I run it from launchd:
aerender version 15.0.1x73
PROGRESS: Launching After Effects...
PROGRESS: ...After Effects successfully launched
And that's it. (In reality I'm running this in a context where I can log the exit code and it's always 0. For this purpose I have drastically simplified the project to what you see here, and it still doesn't run).
Things I've tried:
- Set
KeepAlivetotruein the plist- This just relaunches the process after it exits
- Add
/dev/nullas theStandardInPathin the plist (as per this post)- Still exits early
- Add
-iand-cto the beginning ofProgramArguments(from the same post as above)- Command doesn't run
- Set
AbandonProcessGrouptotruein the plist- Still exits early
- Append
&to put the task in the background- Silences output
- Launch
aerenderwithscreen -d -m ...- Using the -L flag and checking the log, the output is the same; it stops after
aerenderlaunches After Effects and then exits before rendering.
- Using the -L flag and checking the log, the output is the same; it stops after
Running ps aux | grep aerender shows over 20 processes running (probably from all the times I've executed the script), most of them aerendercore. But no output, no video.
What am I doing wrong?
Best Answer
As you have discovered, aerender requires access to the Window Manager. You could try putting your job into
~/Library/LaunchAgentswhich runs in the user session, or use another scheduling tool.launchd Alternative
If a user is logged in or even fast user switched out, you could use a tool like Power Manager to run your Window Manager requiring scripts and applications.
I wrote Power Manager, so feel free to ask technical questions. I suggest it in this case, because what you want is possible thanks to the tool's architecture.
per-user and Window Manager Access
Power Manager runs a per-user process called
pmuser. This process allows you to run scheduled scripts and tasks as a specified user or as the Active User – the front most user.Within your Power Manager event, look for the Environment pop-up. This controls which user environment your shell script will run in. Active User is the front most graphical user session and it has access to the Window Manager.