How to Get Applications to Launch at System Startup on macOS

macOS provides a task management framework called launchd. You can create tasks by placing XML files in a specific directory. launchd will run the task at a specified time according to the configuration in the XML. It is suitable for automating customized tasks, such as starting a web server at startup, backing up files regularly, etc.

This is an example of starting a Rails on Ruby service at boot time.

Preparation

At first, determine the command to be run. In my case, the command to start Rails on Ruby is ` rails server –environment=development –binding=0.0.0.0 –port=4000 –using=puma, and the work directory is /Users/xyw/git/Today`.

Create a Service

Create a plist file in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ directory. This is my plist file to start rails:

<plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>com.wxyucs.today</string>
        <key>KeepAlive</key>
        <true/>
        <key>RunAtLoad</key>
        <true/>
        <key>WorkingDirectory</key>
        <string>/Users/xyw/git/Today</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
            <string>/Users/xyw/.rbenv/shims/rails</string>
            <string>server</string>
            <string>--environment=development</string>
            <string>--binding=0.0.0.0</string>
            <string>--port=4000</string>
            <string>--using=puma</string>
        </array>
        <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
        <string>/tmp/today.err</string>
        <key>StandardOutPath</key>
        <string>/tmp/today.out</string>
    </dict>
</plist>

Enable the Service

Now, enable the service:

$ launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.example.app.plist
$ launchctl start com.example.app

Disable the Service

If you no longer need this service at startup, you can disable with this command:

$ launchctl stop com.example.app

Reference

• https://www.launchd.info/