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I need a way to add an application to the Login Items from a postflight script which is run as part of my installer. It needs to work on 10.5+. Preferably, it would work in a bash script. My application already requires administrative rights.

The approach I found here: Mac OS Login Items with Arguments? seemed to be on the right track (included below)... but didn't work when I tried it on command line and I'm not sure how to make it install for All Users or if I need to add logic to check if it's already added to startup items before calling this code.

#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/osascript -e "tell application \"System Events\" to make new login item with properties { path: \"$1\", hidden:false } at end"

I suspect I could also do something with a launchd. But, I'm not sure which approach is the best practice for compatibility across versions.

NOTE: I do NOT want to add it using some objective-c code inside my app. I need the installer to add it. Currently, what I do is start the application after install which then Adds it to Login Items in code using the LSSharedFileListRef... Example of that approach can be found here: How do you make your App open at login?. The reason this is not ok is I need to make my application install with Apple Remote Desktop via command line, when on the login screen. So, the application needs to not start automatically after install.

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blak3r
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2 Answers2

15

Here's the options I investigated and experimented with:

Option 1: Use Login Items

This is the method I used. It's very easy to do from a bash file by adding the following line to your postflight.

defaults write /Library/Preferences/loginwindow AutoLaunchedApplicationDictionary -array-add '{Path="/Applications/Your Application.app";}'

Note: You don't even have to worry about adding duplicates if you reinstall the application. The loginwindow process removes duplicates when it reads them.

I tested this on 10.5, 10.6, and 10.7
@noa says this doesn't work on mountain lion (10.8), Haven't personally confirmed.

Option 2: LaunchAgent

The unique ramifications of using a Launch Agent are:

  1. Your application doesn't appear in the Login Items list, so the user really has to know what they're doing to get rid of it
  2. The user cannot end your applications process without running: launchctl unload /Library/LaunchAgents/com.your.package.plist

Here's some code you could use to create the launch agent in your bash file:

cat > /Library/LaunchAgents/com.your.application.agent.plist << EOT
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.your.application.agent</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Applications/Your Application.app/Contents/MacOS/Your Application</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>
EOT

Option 3: Compile Obj-c code to a binary

I never actually finished this approach. Apparently, this is the approach that Novell takes. Essentially you'd make a foundation application that calls the libraries referenced from this solution: How do you make your App open at login?

Other

Didn't try this but according to this post if you want it to work on tiger you need to use AppleScript..? I can't confirm or deny that but thought this link might be relevant. Editing Mac OS X login items in Objective-C through AppleScript

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  • You make some good points regarding user experience in the LaunchAgent case. I think Apple wants you to do the backend handling in your app and use whatever UI is appropriate to let the user launch something at login or not. – w00t Oct 10 '11 at 12:34
  • On the other hand, the Dock allows you to right-click apps and add/remove them from login items under Options – w00t Oct 10 '11 at 12:34
  • Well-argued and presented, +1. – Jan Oct 12 '12 at 06:51
  • @noa, thanks, I added a warning. I'll take a look at how we're doing it in 10.8 and report back. What approach did you take? – blak3r Mar 13 '13 at 00:31
  • Thanks, I appreciate it. I'm leaning toward option 3 – writing a command-line utility to do the same. Alternatively, maybe AppleScript, though I need it in the global login items and I'm not sure that can be done with AppleScript. I read somewhere that the AppleScript API was deprecated. I can't find any official docs or evidence either way. By the way, here's the question which confirmed my findings re 10.8: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9483959/osx-10-8-loginitems – paulmelnikow Mar 13 '13 at 03:58
  • @noa, Option 1 I'm pretty sure still works for us in 10.8... I'm not 100% sure though, will try and confirm. – blak3r May 08 '13 at 20:20
  • Hmm, interesting. In my experience it only works under 10.8 if the line is in the plist at the time of the upgrade from 10.7. – paulmelnikow May 08 '13 at 23:08
3

There are two ways you can start your program at login time:

  1. Use login items
  2. Set up a LaunchAgent

The LaunchAgent is simplest, all you need is a .plist file that tells launchd to load your program, and then place that file in /Library/LaunchAgents (as part of the install package).

Login items are a bit of a pain and it's per-user.

w00t
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