Run shell script at boot time (OS X)

Question

I've been trying to get this to work but haven't had any success.

I have this jar file: /Users/ivanmorelos/Documents/guiprueba.jar

I also made this sh file:

#!/bin/bash
java -jar guiprueba.jar

the path to this sh is: /Users/ivanmorelos/Documents/guiprueba.sh

If I run this script from the terminal like

bash /Users/ivanmorelos/Documents/guiprueba.sh

then the jar executes perfectly.

Now I went to /Library/LaunchDaemons/ and made the following com.ivan.gui.plist:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple$
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.ivan.gui</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Users/ivanmorelos/Documents/guiprueba.sh</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
    <key>UserName</key>
    <string>root</string>
</dict>
</plist>

*I made the sh executable and it belongs to ivanmorelos, so does the jar file.

*The plist belongs to root.

As I understand this should make my jar execute at boot time and therefor, before the login screen comes up. Am I correct? But any way nothing happens and I don't know where the error is. Could you please help me? I would really appreciate it.

EDIT

I made the following change in the script:

java -jar guiprueba.jar

for

touch texto.txt

to create a simple file but it still doesn't do it.

Have both files (the daemon and the script) access privileges root:wheel 644 ? They have to. And the script is supposed to be located also in the main library. The keepAlive key is actually not needed unless the script uses a run loop. — vadian
– vadian, Commented Jul 28, 2016 at 16:59
Hi @vadian, both files have 644 privileges. What do you mean by main library? Should I move the script to /Library/? — IvnBam
– IvnBam, Commented Jul 28, 2016 at 18:25
It's more important that the owner is root and the group is wheel. And yes, move the script to /Library maybe in a subfolder of Application Support since the daemon runs in the local domain. — vadian
– vadian, Commented Jul 28, 2016 at 18:30
@vadian yes the owner is root and group is wheel. I moved the script to /Library but still doesnt work — IvnBam
– IvnBam, Commented Jul 28, 2016 at 19:09
I assume you have adjusted the path to the scripting the plist file. And did you load the daemon once with launchctl and sudo? — vadian
– vadian, Commented Jul 28, 2016 at 19:18

IvnBam · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-29 18:37:49Z

2

So I finally found the solution to this problem.

I left my jar at /Users/ivanmorelos/Documents/ owned by root:wheel. A ls -l shows this:

-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  2365 Jul 29 11:27 guiprueba.jar

Then moved my plist to /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ with the following permissions:

-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  372 Jul 29 12:49 com.ivan.plist

Also moved my script to /usr/sbin/ with the following permissions:

-rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  129 Jul 29 13:07 /usr/sbin/guiprueba

and as the ls -l shows I removed the .sh

And that's it. Now my script and jar execute at boot time.

This is the final plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs$
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>com.ivan</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
                <string>/usr/sbin/guiprueba</string>
        </array>
        <key>RunAtLoad</key>
        <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

answered Jul 29, 2016 at 18:37

IvnBam

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2 Comments

Velociround Over a year ago

This solution apparently does not work in macOS Catalina because of the new security restrictions (read-only volume). How did you manage that?

Dalmazio Over a year ago

It's better to place your custom script in /usr/local/bin -- that's where 3rd party scripts and unix apps normally go.

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