Can’t launch daemon with launchctl in Yosemite

I have a launchd daemon placed in ~/Library/LaunchAgents that worked well in Mavericks. But it won’t start in Yosemite public beta. The daemon plist is like this (my username is darksair with UID 501)

<?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>org.darksair.retrmail</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
      <string>/Users/darksair/bin/retrmail.py</string>
    </array>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <false/>
    <key>StartInterval</key>
    <integer>300</integer>
    <key>LaunchOnlyOnce</key>
    <false/>
    <key>UserName</key>
    <string>darksair</string>
    <key>ProcessType</key>
    <string>Standard</string>
    <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
    <dict>
      <key>PATH</key>
      <string>/Users/darksair/Python/bin:/Users/darksair/Python3/bin:/Users/darksair/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin</string>
    </dict>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/Users/darksair/logs/retrmail.log</string>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/Users/darksair/logs/retrmail.log</string>
  </dict>
</plist>

Basically it is supposed to run ~/bin/retrmail.py every 5 minutes.

I notice that in Yosemite launchd is upgraded to 2.0, and launchctl has new commands. I tried

sudo launchctl kickstart user/501/org.darksair.retrmail

and it said

Could not find service "org.darksair.retrmail" in domain for uid: 501

I also tried the old school

sudo launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/retrmail.plist

and it said

/Users/darksair/Library/LaunchAgents/retrmail.plist: Path had bad ownership/permissions

The file is owned by me and the staff group. I tried both permission 644 and 600 with the same error.

So does anyone know how to properly fire up a launchd daemon in Yosemite?

UPDATE: Looks like my launch agent file has to be owned by root:wheel. After I chown, I tried

sudo launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/retrmail.plist

and it didn’t issue any error. And I think my deamon is running properly. I’ll leave this question open because I remember the launchd document clearly states that the launch agent file can be owned by the user running the daemon.

UPDATE2: No it wasn’t running properly. It got run only once, but not again, as if it was unloaded.

UPDATE3: I upgraded to Yosemite public beta 3, and changed my agent to this

<?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>org.darksair.retrmail</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
      <string>/Users/darksair/bin/retrmail.py</string>
    </array>
    <key>StartInterval</key>
    <integer>300</integer>
    <key>UserName</key>
    <string>darksair</string>
    <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
    <dict>
      <key>PATH</key>
      <string>/Users/darksair/Python/bin:/Users/darksair/Python3/bin:/Users/darksair/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin</string>
    </dict>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/Users/darksair/logs/retrmail.log</string>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/Users/darksair/logs/retrmail.log</string>
  </dict>
</plist>

I reloaded this agent, and I think now it is working properly. I’m still leaving this question open because I don’t know what’s wrong with my previous plist.

In conclusion, what I found is I have to change the owner of the plist to root:wheel in order to load it.

Solution 1:

From man launchctl

Note that per-user configuration files (LaunchAgents) must be owned by root (if they are located in /Library/LaunchAgents) or the user loading them (if they are located in $HOME/Library/LaunchAgents). All system-wide daemons (LaunchDaemons) must be owned by root. Configuration files must disallow group and world writes. These restrictions are in place for security reasons, as allowing writability to a launchd configuration file allows one to specify which executable will be launched.

Fix is

sudo chmod 600 /Library/LaunchDaemons/x.plist
sudo chown root /Library/LaunchDaemons/x.plist

Solution 2:

Strangely enough, using sudo was your problem. By using sudo, you were no longer yourself, so you were not the owner of your own file. Remove sudo, repeat the command and it should load just fine. Sorry for the philosophical approach to it all.