Running terminal commands on startup/login

Question

How can I run terminal commands on startup or login? On FreeBSD I believe you can do this using rc.d - is there an equivalent for the Mac? I know how to set up Login Items, but these only work for GUI applications, and there must be an elegant way to make terminal commands run without wrapping them in a GUI executable? As clarified below, I sometimes need to sudo these commands.

possible duplicate of How can I run/stop/relaunch an application automatically, at boot/login/some other time? — mmmmmm, Dec 20 '11 at 19:32
Not really a duplicate, as it's specific to terminal commands, covering how to sudo them, etc. — tog22, Aug 18 '12 at 09:09
This question is "How can I run terminal commands on startup or login? " as is the other and where is sudo in either question? — mmmmmm, Aug 18 '12 at 11:48

mmmmmm · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-21T14:04:47.877

4

OSX uses launchd to start Unix scripts and executables at boot or login.

New tasks are added via launchctl to update a plist

An easier way of doing this is to use the app Lingon now available on the Mac App Store or LaunchControl

edited Aug 21 '16 at 14:04

answered Dec 20 '11 at 19:18

mmmmmm

30,160

I'll definitely take a look at Lingon! – gentmatt Dec 20 '11 at 19:30
Thanks, how would I go about adding a command starting 'sudo' via launchctl (given I'd need to supply my sudo password)? – tog22 Dec 21 '11 at 15:17
@tog22 in the plist see the key UserName to say which user the command should run as – mmmmmm Dec 21 '11 at 15:24
You can run launchd services as root by saving them to /Library/. – Lri Aug 19 '12 at 10:29

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:45

2

Use Apple Script.

The script would be like this:

do shell script "cd ~/Documents"

Create an application that uses this script. This application can be added to the login items. I've explained in detail how to do this here.

Executing commands in Apple Script as admin

Password prompt at runtime:

do shell script "rm -rf ~/Documents/Gorleben" with administrator privileges

Password saved within the script:

do shell script "rm -rf ~/Documents/Gorleben" with administrator privileges password "123456"

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:45

Community

1

answered Dec 20 '11 at 18:00

gentmatt

49,722

Thanks, but I need to 'sudo' my command - presumably there's no way to do that with AppleScript as I'd need to enter my password after the command? – tog22 Dec 21 '11 at 15:16
1

This can be done by adding with administrator privileges password "123456" at the end of the command. If you don't want to save the password in the script, just write with administrator privileges. Then you'll be prompted for a password at runtime. I'll edit my answer. – gentmatt Dec 21 '11 at 15:40

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 30 '21 at 16:47

1

On mac, executing some script after startup can be accomplished by cron job:

@reboot /path/to/script.sh

answered Jul 30 '21 at 16:47

Iceberg

301

Running terminal commands on startup/login

3 Answers3