The story of how Mac OS X went from cron, to launchd, and ended up with Duet Activity Scheduler, to schedule background activities like backups.
LaunchAgents
Many apps need helpers, usually run as LaunchAgents, LaunchDaemons or LoginItems. After introductory explanation of how these work, this explains how it changes in Ventura.
Four popular and straightforward ways to set your Mac to run an app or other software when it starts up. Includes AppleScript code.
How to set your Mac to run scripts, apps and other software automatically, and at regular intervals, using launchd and a property list.
With Mojave’s release 11 days away, its privacy protection looks even more complex, particularly when an app uses a helper tool which needs Full Disk Access.
When you want software to run automatically each time you Mac starts up, there are several ways of doing that. Here’s your choice.
Sometimes you don’t know of a silent update until an app misbehaves or crashes. One day, the innocent-looking plist tucked away in a LaunchAgents folder could be malicious.
OS X and macOS make it very easy for malware to make itself persistent. It’s time for High Sierra to improve protection of the user.
Background activities scheduled by third-party software currently use launchd, and run the risk of affecting the user. Would GCD be a better choice of dispatcher?
Schedule a periodic task as a Launch Agent. How close to the expected time does macOS actually run it?
The Eclectic Light Company 