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Does launchd Beat cron?

Posted by timothy on from the borrowable dept.

Blamemyparents writes "For those who aren't Appleheads, you may not have heard that with Tiger, Apple swapped out old Unix standby cron for their own creation, launchd (Apple mentions it on their OS X page and has the man page for it up as well). Seems like it's a bit nerdy, but this changes a LOT about how *nix systems have done things for many years. Launchd is Apple's replacement for quite a few utilities, including launching and quitting quite a few different things, and getting info from the system and other running processes. This page from Ars Technica talks a bit more in depth about it. Apple has open sourced the thing, and is apparently hoping all the unix kids will take a look."

7 of 798 comments (clear)

  1. Is it really usable by the Open Source Community ? by alexhs · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Can launchd be covered by some submarine patent ?

    -- I'm not closing the paranoia mode publicly so YOUR heads will blow soon... --

    --
    I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
  2. Apple is getting a bit stiff in their britches by grikdog · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Change Is Not Good, Leon. This sounds like another reason to delay adopting Tiger until the end of the fiscal year or later, since it seems unlikely that this is the last or only surprise the Man Who Created Lisa will drop on us.

    --
    ``Tension, apprehension & dissension have begun!'' - Duffy Wyg&, in Alfred Bester's _The Demolished Man_
  3. Re:Splitting hairs. by cortana · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    The two are totally different you prat.

  4. Re:Submitter is confused by Chanc_Gorkon · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    AMEN. His all assuming knowledge is a bit irritating, but he has not proven himself as a Apple employee to me. He says all this stuff, but I have yet to see a post that alludes to his credentials. PLUS he's always saying Apple's way is the best. Well, I personally LIKE all of those other files. What happens if this ONE plist file gets toasted? Scheduled stuff doesn't run, inits don't happen..etc...etc. Spreading the configs out may seem a bit complex, but it might have been done that way for a reason. Not saying I don't like what I have read about launchd, I am just saying that Apple DOESN'T, as much as this guy like to say they do, always know best.

    --

    Gorkman

  5. Re:Submitter is confused - Mod parent offtopic. by aristotle-dude · · Score: 1, Flamebait
    Here's an idea, why not discuss what he posted instead? If you worked at corporation, chances are you would be aware of other projects on the go in your department or other departments. Ever heard of the "water cooler"?

    Back on topic, I hope other *nix take a similar approach. Perhaps Apple could Open source it. How about instead of being an annoying and negative ass, try reserving judgement until you see it in action?

    --
    Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
  6. Re:automater by ickoonite · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    As I understand it, to replace crond, Apple has introduced Automater...

    Then you patently don't understand it, although judging by your spelling, you are of limited intellect in any event.

    iqu :P

  7. Re:Not a cron replacement, a init replacement by As+Seen+On+TV · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Did you copy-and-paste this or something? Because it's not relevant to the comment to which you replied.

    For the record, SystemStarter is deprecated in Tiger. All third parties are encouraged to stop using SystemStarter packages and move to launchd. The launchd service replaces SystemStarter.