Launchify
=========
Launchify is a tool that makes it super easy to schedule programs to run as
regular background tasks on macOS. As an example, to schedule a program `myprog`
to run ever 5 minutes:
```$ launchify 5m myprog```
Under the hood, launchify registers your program to run using `launchd`. It
writes a boilerplate config file to `~/Library/LaunchAgents` and sets it up to
write logs to `~/logs/myprog`.
Install
-------
Install requires the rust toolchain, which may be installed like:
```$ curl https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf | sh```
Then install using `cargo`:
```$ cargo install launchify```
Advanced Usage
--------------
To see full CLI options, run `launchify -h`.
You can specify the period to run the program over as (d)ays, (h)ours, (m)inutes
or (s)econds. For example, to run `myprog` once an hour:
```$ launchify 1h myprog```
Note that `myprog` may be either the absolute or relative path to an executable,
or the name of an executable on your PATH.
Extra program args may be specified via the `--args` option
```$ launchify 5m myprog --args="--foo bar"```
You may override the default name used to label the launchify job and log
directory via `--name`. By default the name is derived from the program filename.
```$ launchify 5m myprog --name=my_awesome_program```
By default, the task will be configured to run in the same working directory
that you run `launchify` inside, however this may be overridden via the
`--working-dir` option:
```$ launchify 5m myprog --working-dir=/path/to/dir```
Comparison to launchctl
-----------------------
`launchify` is not intended to replace `launchctl` but is a convenience tool
to complement it. `launchify` purposely does not support the full configuration
options which may be passed to `launchctl` but optimizes for a common use-case.
After scheduling a program using `launchify`, you will find the configuration
file written to `~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.<name>.plist`. To stop running
the program, run:
```$ launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.<name>.plist```
For further information on launch agents and daemones on macOS, see
https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPSystemStartup/Chapters/CreatingLaunchdJobs.html