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There is still no cron in the process list, cron jobs aren't running, and launchctl list says - 0 com.vix.cron. Moving away from cron to pure launchd is one way to get around this but it would require diverging our linux and mac code even further, and would require a lot of testing and frankly a. I changed 'root' to my user and spent hours trying to figure out why my crontab wouldn't work. It was trying to run my username as a command! On user specific crontabs, do not specify a user to run the command as. The crontab located at /etc/crontab is the system-wide crontab. Root is specified in each so those commands are run as root. To erase the cron file, just type - $ crontab -r To list the current cron contents type - $ crontab -l You can use Pico, emacs or vi to create a new cron file with times and files to execute and then type - $ cron filename I don't think you want to fool around with the root users cron file.
Having used Linux and Unix since 1995, I find myself pretty much locked at the hip with crontab to keep my jobs working on a given schedule. Go figure, as soon as I update my MacOS machine to Sierra and at the same time want to get Clam antivirus configured to auto-scan, I find out it’s not working in there. It was a bit of a rabbit hole situation, where one thing lead to another. In the end, I found out that cron has been deprecated in OS X/MacOS, and now Launchd is default and supported. One of those things that rubs me the wrong way, but it is what it is since it’s not designed to be a server or a Unix system really.
There is still no cron in the process list, cron jobs aren't running, and launchctl list says - 0 com.vix.cron. Moving away from cron to pure launchd is one way to get around this but it would require diverging our linux and mac code even further, and would require a lot of testing and frankly a lot more familiarity with launchd. Run & Edit Crontabs In Mac OS X With A GUI App Drag and drop support. As suggested by a user, CronniX now features drag and drop. Upon dropping a text selection on a. Open for different user. The file menu item 'Open For User' will open a dialog that allows you to open another useris.
I found /usr/lib/cron to be symlinked to /var/at, and /var/at has a cron.allow file (/var/at/cron.allow). ‘At’ is also disabled by default. ‘Atrun’ controls it. I vi’ed /System/Library/LaunchDaemon/com.apple.atrun.plist and found out that cron was deprecated.
Here’s the skinny on Launchd. plist files handle the applications that will run within it. It’s an XML based file which tags a string name for it, the program application that will run, arguments, when it will run, and how frquently. A description and logs are designated in there as well. Once one is seen, it’s relatively simple to edit and create your own for any script or application you’d like to run. That’s what I did.
/Library/LaunchDaemons – holds plist files for global services running as root
/Library/LaunchAgents – Holds plist files only used while users are logged on. (Run as ‘root’)
$HOME/Library/LaunchAgents – Hold plist files used when users are logged on. (run as the userid) https://generousfm877.weebly.com/qsync-client-for-mac.html.
/Library/LaunchAgents – Holds plist files only used while users are logged on. (Run as ‘root’)
$HOME/Library/LaunchAgents – Hold plist files used when users are logged on. (run as the userid) https://generousfm877.weebly.com/qsync-client-for-mac.html.
And on to the commands to control launchd… which kinda reminds me of systemd on newer Linux systems, disturbingly.
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- launchctl list – view currently registered plists
- launchctl load -w <plist file> – adds and registers plist file, starting it.
- launchctl unload -w <plist file> – remove and deregister plist file.
So, I wanted to have freshclam (clam antivirus script that updates clamav) run regularly. How to stop apps from automatically opening on mac. I created this plist file (/Library/LaunchDaemons/net.clamav.freshclam.plist):
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC “-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN” “http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd”>
<plist version=”1.0″>
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>net.clamav.freshclam.plist</string>
<key>LowPriorityIO</key>
<true/>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/usr/local/bin/freshclam</string>
<string>–quiet</string>
</array>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
<key>ServiceDescription</key>
<string>Checks for and downloads updates to the ClamAV virus database.</string>
<key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
<dict>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>60</integer>
</dict>
<key>StandardErrorPath</key>
<string>/tmp/freshclam.err</string>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC “-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN” “http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd”>
<plist version=”1.0″>
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>net.clamav.freshclam.plist</string>
<key>LowPriorityIO</key>
<true/>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/usr/local/bin/freshclam</string>
<string>–quiet</string>
</array>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
<key>ServiceDescription</key>
<string>Checks for and downloads updates to the ClamAV virus database.</string>
<key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
<dict>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>60</integer>
</dict>
<key>StandardErrorPath</key>
<string>/tmp/freshclam.err</string>
![App App](/uploads/1/3/4/1/134122187/668652056.jpg)
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Allow apps from anywhere mac command. <key>StandardOutPath</key>
<string>/tmp/freshclam.out</string>
</dict>
</plist> Download antivirus for android with license key.
<string>/tmp/freshclam.out</string>
</dict>
</plist> Download antivirus for android with license key.
![Crontab Crontab](/uploads/1/3/4/1/134122187/177947008.png)
And a script I wrote that uses clam antivirus to scan my directories is run by this plist (/Library/LaunchDaemons/net.clamav.clamscan.plist):
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC “-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN” “http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd”>
<plist version=”1.0″>
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>net.clamav.clamscan.plist</string>
<key>LowPriorityIO</key>
<true/>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/usr/local/bin/clamscan.sh</string>
</array>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
<key>ServiceDescription</key>
<string>Runs a clamscan on the /Users subdirectories</string>
<key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
<dict>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>60</integer>
</dict>
<key>StandardErrorPath</key>
<string>/tmp/clamscan.err</string>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC “-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN” “http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd”>
<plist version=”1.0″>
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>net.clamav.clamscan.plist</string>
<key>LowPriorityIO</key>
<true/>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/usr/local/bin/clamscan.sh</string>
</array>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
<key>ServiceDescription</key>
<string>Runs a clamscan on the /Users subdirectories</string>
<key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
<dict>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>60</integer>
</dict>
<key>StandardErrorPath</key>
<string>/tmp/clamscan.err</string>
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<key>StandardOutPath</key>
<string>/tmp/clamscan.out</string>
</dict>
</plist>
<string>/tmp/clamscan.out</string>
</dict>
</plist>
After all is said and done, Launchd runs clam antivirus to scan my /Users subdirectories on a regular basis just in case I have something on here I shouldn’t.
It’d be nicer if there would just be an integrated scheduler with the Apple clam antivirus that would translate the scheduling into something that wouldn’t require learning how to build a Launchd script from the beginning. I can see why they didn’t since it started on Linux and it’s easier to just toss something like this into crontab:
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*/60 * * * * freshclam 2>&1 > /tmp/freshclam.log