We are building a 'server' application that can either run as a daemon or can run in background without showing any GUI. Basically, the end user can either configure this to run as a daemon so that it can be tied to the user's session or will launch the process which user will start and quit as needed. I wanted to understand what is the recommended mechanism for such an application from Apple - Should this application be built as a macOS Bundle ? Apple documentation also says that we should not daemonize the process by calling fork. Hence if we create a unix-style executable, will I not need to fork to make it run in a detached state when I launch the executable via double-click ? [Reference Link] Is it fine to have an application on macOS which is a bundle but does not show any UI when launched by double click on the app-icon or via 'open'? While we have been able to achieve this by using NSApplicationMain and not showing the UI, was wondering if using CFRunLoop is best for this case as it is a non-gui application. If we can get the right documentation link or recommendations on how we should build such an application which can run in a non-gui mode and also in a daemonized manner, it will help us. Should the application be always built as a macos bundle or should it be a unix-style executable to support both the cases - by the same application/product and how should we look at the distribution of such applications.

Hello, My current app bundle structure is I have a sandboxed GUI and a unsandboxed launch agent that does the core logic of my app. Our pkg post install scripts handles bootstrapping the Launch Agent plists defined in /Library/Launch Agents. I have been tasked with creating a restart/exit button on the UI which terminates the Launch Agent (essentially bootout command in launchctl) and terminates the UI as well. I have attempted to follow the SMAppServcice.agent(plistName) and changed Program key to BundleProgram and changed the value to the relative path as in example provided in Apple Docs (old launch agent plist attached, and new bundle build phase style attached. I have been unable to register or unregister the launch agent via the UI, and in the initial case when trying to call unregister the launch agent got removed and i got "Operation not permitted" with error kSMErrorInvalidSignature seems like some code signature issue im not aware of. I wasnt even able to bootstrap the launch agent back until I found a script which reset such launchctl settings. My question is: is the sandboxed UI not able to do this (and why is this not documented in the dev docs I have no idea), and if so then how would I go about terminating both services and also being able to restart them? This seems like a common use case the UI should be able to handle as far as ownership of running/booting out its resources. ).

My question is: Do I need two App IDs? One for my launch daemon in order to sign it properly, allowing it to use the Endpoint Security framework. One for the container app. My understanding is that my existing launch daemon can perform the endpoint security requirements I need. So far, I have had just one App ID for my container app that lives in /Applications. I have applied for the endpoint security restricted entitlement and have this for development now. Do endpoint security items have go in Library/SystemExtension? Can my launch daemon live in Library/LaunchDaemons and still use the Endpoint Security framework?

When I install my application, it installs fine and everything works alongwith all the system level daemons but when I reboot the system, none of my daemons are getting launched and this happens only on MacOS 15x, on older version it is working fine. In the system logs, I see that my daemons have been detected as legacy daemons by backgroundtaskmanagementd with Disposition [enabled, allowed, visible, notified] 2025-01-13 21:17:04.919128+0530 0x60e Default 0x0 205 0 backgroundtaskmanagementd: [com.apple.backgroundtaskmanagement:main] Type: legacy daemon (0x10010) 2025-01-13 21:17:04.919128+0530 0x60e Default 0x0 205 0 backgroundtaskmanagementd: [com.apple.backgroundtaskmanagement:main] Flags: [ legacy ] (0x1) 2025-01-13 21:17:04.919129+0530 0x60e Default 0x0 205 0 backgroundtaskmanagementd: [com.apple.backgroundtaskmanagement:main] Disposition: [enabled, allowed, visible, notified] (0xb) But later, it backgroundtaskmanagementd decides to disallow it. 2025-01-13 21:17:05.013202+0530 0x32d Default 0x4d6 89 0 smd: (BackgroundTaskManagement) [com.apple.backgroundtaskmanagement:main] getEffectiveDisposition: disposition=[enabled, disallowed, visible, notified], have LWCR=true 2025-01-13 21:17:05.013214+0530 0x32d Error 0x0 89 0 smd: [com.apple.xpc.smd:all] Legacy job is not allowed to launch: <private> status: 2 Is there anything changed in latest Mac OS which is causing this issue? Also what does this status 2 means. Can someone please help with this error? The plist has is true

Purpose I want to use launchd to run a shell script asynchronously every minute, but I'm encountering an issue where the job does not run, and I receive the error "Bootstrap failed: 5: Input/output error". I need help identifying the cause of this issue and how to configure launchd correctly. What I've done Created the shell script (test_ls_save.sh) The script is designed to list the contents of the desktop and save the output to a specified directory. #!/bin/bash DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S) SAVE_DIR=/Users/test/Desktop/personal/log_gather FILE_NAME="ls_output_$DATE.log" ls ~/Desktop > "$SAVE_DIR/$FILE_NAME" echo "ls output saved to $SAVE_DIR/$FILE_NAME" File permissions (ls -l output): -rwxr-xr-x 1 test staff 1234 Feb 17 10:00 /Users/test/Desktop/personal/log_gather/exec/test_ls_save.sh Created the launchd plist file (com.test.logTest.plist) The plist file is configured to execute the shell script every minute. <key>Label</key> <string>com.test.logTest</string> <key>ProgramArguments</key> <array> <string>/bin/bash</string> <string>-c</string> /Users/test/Desktop/personal/log_gather/exec/test_ls_save.sh </array> <key>StartInterval</key> <integer>60</integer> <!-- Run every minute --> File permissions (ls -l output): -rwxr-xr-x 1 test staff 512 Feb 17 10:00 /Users/test/Library/LaunchAgents/com.test.logTest.plist Ran the job with launchctl I used the following command to load the plist file into launchd: sudo launchctl bootstrap gui/$(id -u) /Users/test/Library/LaunchAgents/com.test.logTest.plist pc spec MacBook Pro Apple M1 16 GB RAM macOS 15.3 (Build 24D60) what I know The configuration has been set, but the launchd job is not running every minute as expected. I don't believe there is a mistake with the path. When I check the job using launchctl list, the job does not appear in the list. I don't know where the error log files are supposed to be. I checked /var/log/system.log, but there are no error logs. The .sh file runs fine by itself, but it cannot be executed via launchctl. Want to ask What could be the cause of the launchd job not running as expected? Also, is there a way to check where the logs are being output? If there is an error in the plist file configuration, which part should be modified? Specifically, what improvements should be made regarding environment variables and path settings? If my information is not enough, please tell me what is not enough!

Hi all, Our company has an application that runs on several machines, this app is launched via a deamon that keeps it alive. One of the feature of this app, is to start a headless electron application to run some tests. When spawning this electron application with the new arm64 OS, we are getting this issue: Silent Test Agent Worker exited with code: 133 [ERROR] [75873:0205/135842.347044:ERROR:mach_port_rendezvous.cc(384)] bootstrap_look_up com.hivestreaming.silenttestagent.MachPortRendezvousServer.1: Permission denied (1100) [ERROR] [75873:0205/135842.347417:ERROR:shared_memory_switch.cc(237)] No rendezvous client, terminating process (parent died?) [ERROR] [75872:0205/135842.347634:ERROR:mach_port_rendezvous.cc(384)] bootstrap_look_up com.hivestreaming.silenttestagent.MachPortRendezvousServer.1: Permission denied (1100) [ERROR] [75872:0205/135842.347976:ERROR:shared_memory_switch.cc(237)] No rendezvous client, terminating process (parent died?) Both application (main app and electron one) are signed and notarized, but it seems that there is some other permission issue. If we run the electron application manually, all runs as expected. I added the crash report as attachment CrashReport.log

Hi! I've been developing iOS and macOS apps for many years, but now I am looking to dive into smth i have never touched before, namely privileged helpers, and i am struggling hard trying to find my footing. Here’s my use case: I have a CLI tool that requires elevated privileges. I want to create a menu bar app that can interact with this tool, but I’m struggling to find solid documentation or examples of how to accomplish this using SMAppService. I might just be missing something obvious. If anyone could point me toward relevant documentation, examples, articles, tutorials, or even a WWDC session that covers running privileged helpers with SMAppService, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance!

Hi, On macOS Sonoma and earlier versions, I used my script along with a LaunchDaemon to continuously record my screen. However, after upgrading to macOS Sequoia, the LaunchDaemon no longer works for screen recording. It only works when I use a LaunchAgent. For my workflow, using a LaunchDaemon and running the ffmpeg process as root is much more efficient than running it as a regular user. Does anyone know how to run a script in the background using a LaunchDaemon on macOS Sequoia? Here are my LaunchDaemon plist and script: LaunchDaemon plist: <?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"> <?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>local.ScreenRecord</string> <key>Disabled</key> <false/> <key>RunAtLoad</key> <true/> <key>KeepAlive</key> <true/> <key>Nice</key> <integer>-20</integer> <key>ProgramArguments</key> <array> <string>/bin/bash</string> <string>/usr/local/distrib/record.bash</string> </array> </dict> </plist> Script ## !!! START CONFIGURATION !!! # FFMPEG_LOC="/usr/local/distrib/ffmpeg" FFMPEG_INPUT="-hide_banner -f avfoundation -capture_cursor 1 -pixel_format uyvy422" FFMPEG_VSET="-codec libx264 -r 22 -crf 26 -preset veryfast -b:v 5M -maxrate 7M -bufsize 14M" TIME_REC="-t 600" FOLDER_REC="/usr/local/distrib/REC/" # ## !!! END CONFIGURATION !!! # # Find number id monitor MON_ID=$($FFMPEG_LOC -hide_banner -f avfoundation -list_devices true -i "" 2>&1 | awk -F'[]|[]' '/Capture\ screen/ {print $4}') # if [ -n "$MON_ID" ] then # Time for name DATE_REC=$(date +"%m-%d-%Y_%H-%M-%S") # Number of output video file OUTPUT_NUM=0 # Full command to record FFMPEG_FULL_COMMAND="" for MON_NUM in $MON_ID do FFMPEG_FULL_COMMAND=""$FFMPEG_FULL_COMMAND" "$FFMPEG_INPUT" -i "$MON_NUM" "$FFMPEG_VSET" "$TIME_REC" -map "$OUTPUT_NUM" "$FOLDER_REC""$DATE_REC"_Mon"$MON_NUM".mkv" let OUTPUT_NUM=$OUTPUT_NUM+1 done $FFMPEG_LOC $FFMPEG_FULL_COMMAND else echo "No monitors" sleep 5 fi

Could not launch “App Name” Domain: IDELaunchErrorDomain Code: 20 Recovery Suggestion: LaunchServices has returned error -54. Please check the system logs for the underlying cause of the error. User Info: { DVTErrorCreationDateKey = "2024-12-27 12:16:34 +0000"; DVTRadarComponentKey = 113722; IDERunOperationFailingWorker = IDELaunchServicesLauncher; } The operation couldn’t be completed. (OSStatus error -54.) Domain: NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code: -54 User Info: { "_LSFunction" = "_LSOpenStuffCallLocal"; "_LSLine" = 4224; }

I'm exploring using a handful of frameworks to share code between macOS apps. However, one of these frameworks needs privilege to function. The main app has a helper tool utilizing SMAppService. However, I can't work out if there's a feasible way to use that helper tool to support the framework dependency. Should I be creating a second helper tool for the framework instead? Or am I barking up the wrong tree? Thanks!

Hello, My team has developed a DNS proxy for macOS. We have this set up with a system extension that interacts with the OS, and an always-running daemon that does all the heavy lifting. Communication between the two is DNS request and response packet traffic. With this architecture what are best practices for how the system extension communicates with a daemon? We tried making the daemon a socket server, but the system extension could not connect to it. We tried using XPC but it did not work and we could not understand the errors that were returned. So what is the best way to do this sort of thing?

Hi, I'm in the process of creating an App + Helper Tool combo application, and depending on the necessity of root privileges, I'm setting up two paths in the app: If root privileges are not necessary, I'm using SMJobSubmit rather directly: var submissionError: Unmanaged<CFError>? let submissionResult = SMJobSubmit(kSMDomainUserLaunchd, plist, nil, &submissionError) where plist contains these items: Label=com.***.redactedApp.redacted, ProgramArguments=[path/to/helper-tool, commandName, commandArg1, commandArg2] RunAtLoad=1, KeepAlive=0 and it works as necessary, and performs the operations. Now, in the case of privilege escalation being necessary, this call becomes a bit more complex: let authorization = SFAuthorization() var authRef: AuthorizationRef? do { try authorization?.obtain(withRight: kSMRightModifySystemDaemons, flags: [.extendRights, .interactionAllowed]) authRef = authorization?.authorizationRef() } catch let error { // Logging error } var submissionError: Unmanaged<CFError>? let submissionResult = SMJobSubmit(kSMDomainSystemLaunchd, plist, authRef, &submissionError) while using the same plist, same executable at the same path, same Label. However, when using the second path, suddenly SMJobSubmit fails: Error Domain=CFErrorDomainLaunchd Code=2 "(null)" Now, naturally I headed over to system logs in Console.app, and this is the weirdest - there is nothing suspicious near the log item I submit with the above error from the main application. The tool is embedded in the Contents/MacOS folder. However, my problem is that anything that I can think of seems to lead to the same thought: it should be a problem in both cases, not just the privileged one. Is there something extra that must be taken care of when using SMJobSubmit with privileged helper tools?

I couldn’t create Apple ID account for the past 6 days

’m developing an app on macOS where I want a daemon/agent to run only when the user explicitly triggers it using SMAppService. The goal is to start the daemon when needed, perform the required task, and then stop/unload it after completion. Additionally, if unload or unregister calls are missed, I want to ensure that the daemon doesn’t start automatically upon reboot. Instead, it should only run when a specific action is taken. What are the best practices and detailed methods for achieving this clean and controlled behavior?

I’m developing an app on macOS where I want a daemon/agent to run only when the user explicitly triggers it using SMAppService. The goal is to start the daemon when needed, perform the required task, and then stop/unload it after completion. Additionally, if unload or unregister calls are missed, I want to ensure that the daemon doesn’t start automatically upon reboot. Instead, it should only run when a specific action is taken. What are the best practices and detailed methods for achieving this clean and controlled behavior?

btm_launchagent.txt I have a menu bar app which should be triggered to start when a system extension is successfully installed. The menu bar app is configured as a agent which should be started by SMAppServer. SMAppService register/unregister the agent successfully when the program is running locally. When doing the program installation through JamfNow, which is a MDM system, it fails with following error. I think the problem here is that the backgroundtaskmanagementd trys to register the agent with an invalid uid=-1 or uid: 4294967295(0xFFFFFFFF). 2024-10-02 10:45:33.100537+0200 0x156d4 Activity 0x1b927 88 0 smd: (BackgroundTaskManagement) BTMManager.getEffectiveDisposition 2024-10-02 10:45:33.103478+0200 0x156dd Default 0x1b927 282 0 backgroundtaskmanagementd: [com.apple.backgroundtaskmanagement:main] effectiveItemDisposition: appURL=file:///Applications/Company%20Agent.app/, type=agent, url=Contents/Library/LaunchAgents/com.Company.agent.notifier.plist -- file:///, config={ BTMConfigArguments = ( ); BTMConfigBundleIdentifiers = ( ); BTMConfigExecutablePath = "Contents/Resources/CompanyNotifier.app/Contents/MacOS/CompanyNotifier"; BTMConfigLabel = "com.Company.agent.notifier"; } 2024-10-02 10:45:33.103544+0200 0x156dd Info 0x1b927 282 0 backgroundtaskmanagementd: [com.apple.backgroundtaskmanagement:main] effectiveItemDisposition: result=[disabled, allowed, visible, not notified] 2024-10-02 10:45:33.105120+0200 0x156d4 Default 0x1b927 88 0 smd: (BackgroundTaskManagement) [com.apple.backgroundtaskmanagement:main] getEffectiveDisposition: disposition=[disabled, allowed, visible, not notified], have LWCR=true 2024-10-02 10:45:33.105181+0200 0x156d4 Default 0x0 88 0 smd: [com.apple.xpc.smd:all] Found status: 0 for &lt;private&gt; 2024-10-02 10:45:33.240190+0200 0x154da Default 0x0 88 0 smd: [com.apple.xpc.smd:SMAppServiceFactory] Setting up BundleProgram keys for &lt;private&gt; 2024-10-02 10:45:33.240250+0200 0x154da Default 0x0 88 0 smd: [com.apple.xpc.smd:SMAppServiceFactory] Setting up BundleProgram keys for &lt;private&gt; 2024-10-02 10:45:33.240388+0200 0x154da Activity 0x1b92a 88 0 smd: (BackgroundTaskManagement) BTMManager.registerLaunchItemWithAuditToken 2024-10-02 10:45:33.243990+0200 0x156dd Default 0x1b92a 282 0 backgroundtaskmanagementd: [com.apple.backgroundtaskmanagement:main] registerLaunchItem: pid=3626, uid=-1, type=agent, parentURL=&lt;private&gt;, url=&lt;private&gt;, config=&lt;private&gt; 2024-10-02 10:45:33.244917+0200 0x156dd Default 0x1b92a 282 0 backgroundtaskmanagementd: [com.apple.backgroundtaskmanagement:main] registerLaunchItem: found existing item: uuid=AC0DBC9B-7A16-443E-ABFC-05DF0F534C08, name=CompanyNotifier, type=managed agent, disposition=[disabled, allowed, visible, notified], identifier=com.Company.agent.notifier, url=Contents/Library/LaunchAgents/com.Company.agent.notifier.plist -- file:/// 2024-10-02 10:45:33.245238+0200 0x156dd Debug 0x1b92a 282 0 backgroundtaskmanagementd: [com.apple.backgroundtaskmanagement:main] BTMStore: save scheduled. 2024-10-02 10:45:33.245281+0200 0x156dd Debug 0x1b92a 282 0 backgroundtaskmanagementd: [com.apple.backgroundtaskmanagement:main] RecordSet notification scheduled for uid -1 .... 2024-10-02 10:45:33.252358+0200 0x154da Error 0x0 88 0 smd: [com.apple.xpc.smd:SMAppService] Unable to submit job: &lt;private&gt; error: Error Domain=OSLaunchdErrorDomain Code=112 UserInfo={NSLocalizedFailureReason=&lt;private&gt;} 2024-10-02 10:45:33.252707+0200 0x156d4 Default 0x1b92a 88 0 smd: [com.apple.xpc.smd:all] Update request for identifier: &lt;private&gt; uid: 4294967295 2024-10-02 10:45:33.253190+0200 0x156dd Default 0x1b92a 282 0 backgroundtaskmanagementd: [com.apple.backgroundtaskmanagement:main] getItemWithIdentifier: identifier=com.Company.agent.notifier, uid=-1 2024-10-02 10:45:33.253759+0200 0x156d4 Error 0x1b92a 88 0 smd: [com.apple.xpc.smd:btm] Error getting BTMItem with Identifier: &lt;private&gt; uid: 4294967295 error: (null) 2024-10-02 10:45:33.253803+0200 0x156d4 Error 0x1b92a 88 0 smd: [com.apple.xpc.smd:all] Unable to find BTMItem for &lt;private&gt; in 4294967295 2024-10-02 10:45:33.253835+0200 0x156d4 Error 0x1b92a 88 0 smd: [com.apple.xpc.smd:all] Update operation returned error: 3, but no reply expected so error will be silent 2024-10-02 10:45:33.661537+0200 0x156dd Debug 0x0 282 0 backgroundtaskmanagementd: [com.apple.backgroundtaskmanagement:main] sending notification for uid -1, type 131080 2024-10-02 10:45:33.665159+0200 0x154fa Info 0x1b853 282 0 backgroundtaskmanagementd: [com.apple.backgroundtaskmanagement:main] fetchSFLItemsMatching: type=managed user item app 2024-10-02 10:45:33.665374+0200 0x154fa Activity 0x15dd3 282 0 backgroundtaskmanagementd: (BackgroundTaskManagement) BTMManager.userDataDidChange 2024-10-02 10:45:33.666041+0200 0x154da Activity 0x1b92d 88 0 smd: (BackgroundTaskManagement) BTMManager.userDataDidChange 2024-10-02 10:45:33.666651+0200 0x154fa Debug 0x15dd3 282 0 backgroundtaskmanagementd: (BackgroundTaskManagement) [com.apple.backgroundtaskmanagement:main] -[BTMManager handleUserDataDidChangeNotification:]: uid=-1, type=131080 2024-10-02 10:45:33.666085+0200 0x154da Debug 0x1b92d 88 0 smd: (BackgroundTaskManagement) [com.apple.backgroundtaskmanagement:main] -[BTMManager handleUserDataDidChangeNotification:]: uid=-1, type=131080 2024-10-02 10:45:36.218160+0200 0x154fa Debug 0x0 282 0 backgroundtaskmanagementd: [com.apple.backgroundtaskmanagement:main] -[BTMStore handleWriteTimer] entered 2024-10-02 10:45:36.218254+0200 0x154fa Debug 0x0 282 0 backgroundtaskmanagementd: [com.apple.backgroundtaskmanagement:main] -[BTMStore _save] entered 2024-10-02 10:45:36.224738+0200 0x154fa Default 0x0 282 0 backgroundtaskmanagementd: [com.apple.backgroundtaskmanagement:main] BTMStore: store saved to /var/db/com.apple.backgroundtaskmanagement/BackgroundItems-v9.btm Could it be a problem from the MDM system JamfNow or somewhere else? The whole logs is as attached. Thanks!

Hi, we are in the process of exploring how to create an installer for our array of apps. We have come to the conclusion that regular .pkg installers produced by pkgbuild and productbuild are unfulfilling of our expectations. [1] Regardless, our installer needs to place files at privileged locations (/Library/Application Support) so we are looking into how to best solve this problem, with the user having the largest clarity on what they are about to do (so no shady "wants to make changes" dialogs) the least steps to do to install these files in the right place (so no targeted NSSavePanel-s) Now, we have done our light reading via some nicely collected posts on the topic (https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/708765 for example) and the single missing option in the list of privilege escalation models seems to be a one-time privilege escalation from a GUI app. Our reasons for declaring so: AuthorizationExecuteWithPrivileges is long deprecated and we are trying to build a futureproof solution NSAppleScript is just putting up a shady ("wants to make changes") dialog when trying something like this: $ osascript -e "set filePath to \"/Library/Application Support\"" -e "do shell script \"touch \" & the quoted form of filePath & \"/yyy.txt\" with administrator privileges" Is there another way to request a one-time authorization from the admin to perform such a simple operation as copying a file to a protected location? I know it's possible to externalize and internalize Authorization Rights, but they are just an interface to create extra rights and use them as barriers, because they don't actually pass the required right to further operations based on this documentation. Using SMAppService to register a daemon, which has to be manually allowed by the user adds a lot to the complexity of this installation process, and is something we would like to avoid if possible. (And it's also not the right security model if we want to be honest - we don't want ongoing administrator rights and a daemon) Is there something we haven't taken into consideration? [1] preinstall scripts run after the choices are presented during installation and we would need advanced logic (not the limited JavaScript system/files API provided by Installer JS) - plus, the GUI is obviously very limited in a .pkg :(

I have a process [command line cpp application] which i want to run always such as it should relaunch after a crash, after device startup etc. I created a launchd Property List File with KeepAlive true and placed under /Library/LaunchDaemons. Problem Statements: I have a bash script to start and stop this process. start using: launchctl bootstrap. stop involve these two steps: send SIGTERM signal and wait untill process stops after doing some cleanups launchctl bootout [It doesn't sends SIGTERM] during steps 1 - Process is getting stop, but also getting immediate relaunch by launchctl during step 2 - it getting stop again. is there a proper way so that we can disable KeepAlive temporarily so that process will not launch during step 1? or suggest other ways to handle this?

I was experimenting with Service Management API and Xcode project from https://developer.apple.com/documentation/servicemanagement/updating-your-app-package-installer-to-use-the-new-service-management-api and faced some issues with the API. I replaced agent with XPC service and tried to re-register it. Use case is a new app package installation with a newer service binary. In order to get the running service restarted with the new binary it's required to unregister old version and register new one. Otherwise the old version would be still running after app upgrade. The problem is that register fails with "Operation not permitted" error after running unregister which seems to work fine. Experiments with some delays (500ms) between unregister and register seem to help but it's a not a good solution to work around the problem. I'm using open func unregister() async throws with description: The completion handler will be invoked after the running process has been killed if successful or will be invoked whenever an error occurs. After the completion handler has been invoked it is safe to re-register the service. Sample output with no 500ms sleep between unregister and register calls: /Library/Application\ Support/YourDeveloperName/SMAppServiceSampleCode.app/Contents/MacOS/SMAppServiceSampleCode unregister &amp;&amp; /Library/Application\ Support/YourDeveloperName/SMAppServiceSampleCode.app/Contents/MacOS/SMAppServiceSampleCode register Successfully unregistered LaunchDaemon(com.xpc.example.service.plist) Unable to register LaunchDaemon(com.xpc.example.service.plist): Error Domain=SMAppServiceErrorDomain Code=1 "Operation not permitted" UserInfo={NSLocalizedFailureReason=Operation not permitted} In fact it doesn't seem to be safe to re-register. Any explanation would much appreciated! ===================================================== Side issue #2: I tried to add a similar helper executable as in the original project with register/unregister and put it inside the same app bundle but at a different location like Contents/Helpers/ folder instead of Contents/MacOS. And it always fails with this error: Error Domain=SMAppServiceErrorDomain Code=3 "Codesigning failure loading plist: com.okta.service.osquery code: -67028" UserInfo={NSLocalizedFailureReason=Codesigning failure loading plist: com.okta.service.osquery code: -67028} When I moved the helper binary to Contents/MacOS/ folder along with the main app executable it starts working fine again. Other folders like Resources/XPCServices also don't work. Is it a hard requirement for an executable to be located inside main Contents/MacOS folder in order to be able to call SMAppService register/unregister APIs? I haven't found any documentation regarding this requirement. Thanks, Pavel

When I tried to launch my application from non-gui process (from launch daemon) NSworkspace openApplicationAtURL failed if I tried to run it when my device on the login screen. Everything is working if someone logged in, but on the login screen I have the error The application “TestApp” could not be launched because a miscellaneous error occurred. with code 256 NSWorkspace* workspace = [NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace]; NSWorkspaceOpenConfiguration* config = [NSWorkspaceOpenConfiguration configuration]; config.createsNewApplicationInstance = YES; config.activates = NO; config.promptsUserIfNeeded = NO; config.addsToRecentItems = NO; [workspace openApplicationAtURL: appURL configuration: config completionHandler:^(NSRunningApplication *app, NSError *error) { }]; Sometimes after the third try it works, sometimes not at all. I try to use "open" command, it works on MacOS Sequoia, but not working for operating systems below, I see this error The application cannot be opened for an unexpected reason, error=Error Domain=RBSRequestErrorDomain Code=5 "Launch failed." UserInfo={NSLocalizedFailureReason=Launch failed., NSUnderlyingError=0x600002998120 {Error Domain=OSLaunchdErrorDomain Code=125 "Domain does not support specified action" UserInfo={NSLocalizedFailureReason=Domain does not support specified action}}} All these problems occur only on the login screen. I'm developing screen share utility, so I need somehow to launch my application on the login screen. Could someone please help me understand what is recommended way to launch application on the login screen?