You’ve just installed an update to macOS security software, then it gives you a status of ‘Unknown’ caused by [] and stops working. What’s wrong?
LaunchDaemons
While macOS uses DAS-CTS to schedule hundreds of background activities, third-parties normally use launchd. Comes with a full diagram explaining DAS-CTS.
How macOS schedules tasks like making automatic Time Machine backups, from property list to transactions between DAS and CTS.
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.
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.
When you want software to run automatically each time you Mac starts up, there are several ways of doing that. Here’s your choice.
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.
The Eclectic Light Company 