User-friendly launchctl wrapper and helper functions
- Easy CLI management of launchd user agents
- Written in bash and compatible with bash 3.2+ (pre-installed version in macOS)
- Tab-completion support for bash and zsh
- No dependencies required beyond a base macOS install
- Tested on macOS 15 Sequoia but should be compatible with older versions too
Clone the repo and copy lctl to a directory in your $PATH e.g. /usr/local/bin:
git clone git@github.com:newtonne/lctl.git cd lctl && sudo cp lctl.sh /usr/local/bin/lctl
With Homebrew:
cp completions/lctl.bash $(brew --prefix)/etc/bash_completion.d/lctlWith Macports:
sudo cp completions/lctl.bash $(dirname $(dirname $(which port)))/etc/bash_completion.d/lctlWith Homebrew:
cp completions/_lctl $(brew --prefix)/share/zsh/site-functionsWith Macports:
sudo cp completions/_lctl $(dirname $(dirname $(which port)))/share/zsh/site-functionslctl - user-friendly launchctl wrapper and helper functions
USAGE
lctl COMMAND AGENT
lctl list|listdisabled|print
lctl [-h|--help]
COMMANDS
cat Print plist file contents
edit Edit plist file in $EDITOR
file Print plist file path
listdisabled List disabled agents
log View logs in $PAGER
logfiles Print log file paths
reload Shortcut for bootout => bootstrap
tail Tail logs
bootout Unload the agent
bootstrap Load the agent
disable Prevent agent from being loaded
enable Enable the agent
kickstart Execute the agent immediately
kill Send SIGTERM to the agent
list List all agents or brief agent info
print Detailed domain or agent info
See launchctl(1) for more information on second set of commands.
AGENT
Case-insensitively glob matched against .plist files in
~/Library/LaunchAgents
EXAMPLES
lctl reload myagent bootout then bootstrap agent defined in
~/Library/LaunchAgents/*myagent*.plist
lctl listdisabled List all disabled launchd user agents
This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details