Hello!
I'm writing a System Extension that is an Endpoint Security client. And I want to Deny/Allow executing some XPC Service processes (using the ES_EVENT_TYPE_AUTH_EXEC event) depending on characteristics of a process that starts the XPC Service.
For this purpose, I need an API that could allow me to obtain an execution context of the XPC Service process. I can obtain this information using the "sudo launchctl procinfo <pid>" command (e.g. I can use the "domain = pid/3428" part of the output for this purpose). Also, I know that when the xpcproxy process is started, it gets as the arguments a service name and a pid of the process that requests the service so I can grasp the execution context from xpcproxy launching. But are these ways to obtain this info legitimate?
Processes & Concurrency
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I am developing a macOS non-interactive macOS application which does not show any ui.
i want to block main thread and do all the work on worker thread . Once done with work in worker thread, want to unblock main thread by exiting event loop to terminate application.
Because i dont want to show any UI or use any Foundation/Cocoa functionality, i am thinking of using CFRunLoop to block main thread from exiting until i finish my work in worker thread.
When i tried this in a project, I am able to finish work in worker thread after block main thread using CFRunLoop.
I also want this application to be a bundled application, which can be launched by double clicking on application bundle . But when i tried it in my xcode project by launching it using double clicking on application bundle, application keeps on toggling/bouncing in the dock menu with a status "Not responding". Although i am able to complete my work in worker thread.
import Foundation
let runLoop = CFRunLoopGetCurrent()
func workerTask() {
DispatchQueue.global().async {
print("do its work")
sleep(5) // do some work
print("calling exit event loop")
CFRunLoopStop(runLoop)
print ("unblocking main thread")
}
}
workerTask ()
// blocking main thread
print ("blocked main thread")
CFRunLoopRun()
print ("exit")
Why i am getting this application bouncing in doc menu behavior ? I tried by using NSApplicationMain instead of CFRunLoop in my project, in that case i didnt get this behavior .
Does NSApplicationMain does some extra work before starting NSRunLoop which i am not doing while using CFRunLoop, which is showing this toggling/Bouncing application icon in Dock menu ?
or Is this bouncing app icon issue is related to run loop i am using which is CFRunLoop ?
Note : If i dont use a bundled application and use a commandline application then i am able to do all steps in worker thread and exit main thread as i wanted after finishing my work . But i need to do all this in application which can be launched using double clicking (bundled applcation).
If not by using CFRunLoop, then how can i achive this ? - Create a application which shows no UI and do all work in worker thread while main thread is blocked. Once work is done unblock main thread and exit. And user should be able to launch application using double click the application icon.
I was stuck on a long train journey this weekend, so I thought I’d use that time to write up the process for installing a launchd daemon using SMAppService. This involves a number of deliberate steps and, while the overall process isn’t too hard — it’s certainly a lot better than with the older SMJobBless — it’s easy to accidentally stray from the path and get very confused.
If you have questions or comments, start a new thread in the App & System Services > Processes & Concurrency subtopic and tag it with Service Management.
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
Getting Started with SMAppService
This post explains how to use SMAppService to install a launchd daemon. I tested these instructions using Xcode 26.0 on macOS 15.6.1. Things are likely to be slightly different with different Xcode and macOS versions.
Create the container app target
To start, I created a new project:
I choose File > New > Project.
In the template picker, I chose macOS > App.
In options page, I set the Product Name field to SMAppServiceTest [1].
And I selected my team in the Team popup.
And I verified that the Organization Identifier was set to com.example.apple-samplecode, the standard for Apple sample code [1].
I selected SwiftUI in the Interface popup. There’s no requirement to use SwiftUI here; I chose it because that’s what I generally use these days.
And None in the Testing System popup.
And None in the Storage popup.
I then completed the new project workflow.
I configured basic settings on the project:
In the Project navigator, I selected the SMAppServiceTest project.
In the Project editor, I selected the SMAppServiceTest target.
At the top I selected Signing & Capabilities.
In the Signing section, I made sure that “Automatically manage signing” was checked.
And that my team was selected in the Team popup.
And that the bundle ID of the app ended up as com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest.
Still in the Signing & Capabilities tab, I removed the App Sandbox section.
Note It’s possible to use SMAppService to install a daemon from a sandboxed app, but in that case the daemon also has to be sandboxed. That complicates things, so I’m disabling the sandbox for the moment. See Enable App Sandbox, below, for more on this.
Next I tweaked some settings to make it easier to keep track of which target is which:
At the top, I selected the Build Settings tab.
I changed the Product Name build setting from $(TARGET_NAME) to SMAppServiceTest.
On the left, I renamed the target to App.
I chose Product > Scheme > Manage Schemes.
In the resulting sheet, I renamed the scheme from SMAppServiceTest to App, just to keep things in sync.
[1] You are free to choose your own value, of course. However, those values affect other values later in the process, so I’m giving the specific values I used so that you can see how everything lines up.
Create the daemon target
I then created a daemon target:
I chose File > New > Target.
In the template picker, I chose macOS > Command Line Tool.
In the options page, I set the Product Name field to Daemon.
And I selected my team in the Team popup.
And I verified that the Organization Identifier was set to com.example.apple-samplecode, the standard for Apple sample code.
I selected Swift in the Language popup.
And verified that SMAppServiceTest was set in the Project popup.
I clicked Finish.
I configured basic settings on the target:
In the Project navigator, I selected the SMAppServiceTest project.
In the Project editor, I selected the Daemon target.
At the top I selected Signing & Capabilities.
In the Signing section, I made sure that “Automatically manage signing” was checked.
And that my team was selected in the Team popup.
Note The Bundle Identifier field is blank, and that’s fine. There are cases where you want to give a daemon a bundle identifier, but it’s not necessary in this case.
Next I tweaked some settings to make it easier to keep track of which target is which:
At the top, I selected the Build Settings tab.
I changed the Product Name build setting from $(TARGET_NAME) to SMAppServiceTest-Daemon.
I forced the Enable Debug Dylib Support to No.
IMPORTANT To set it to No, you first have to set it to Yes and then set it back to No.
I edited Daemon/swift.swift to look like this:
import Foundation
import os.log
let log = Logger(subsystem: "com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest", category: "daemon")
func main() {
log.log("Hello Cruel World!")
dispatchMain()
}
main()
This just logs a ‘first light’ log message and parks [1] the main thread in dispatchMain().
Note For more about first light log points, see Debugging a Network Extension Provider.
[1] Technically the main thread terminates in this case, but I say “parks” because that’s easier to understand (-:
Test the daemon executable
I selected the Daemon scheme and chose Product > Run. The program ran, logging its first light log entry, and then started waiting indefinitely.
Note Weirdly, in some cases the first time I ran the program I couldn’t see its log output. I had to stop and re-run it. I’m not sure what that’s about.
I chose Product > Stop to stop it. I then switched back the App scheme.
Embed the daemon in the app
I added a build phase to embed the daemon executable into app:
In the Project navigator, I selected the SMAppServiceTest project.
In the Project editor, I selected the App target.
At the top I selected Build Phases.
I added a new copy files build phase.
I renamed it to Embed Helper Tools.
I set its Destination popup to Executables.
I clicked the add (+) button under the list and selected SMAppServiceTest-Daemon.
I made sure that Code Sign on Copy was checked for that.
I then created a launchd property list file for the daemon:
In the Project navigator, I selected SMAppServiceTestApp.swift.
I chose Product > New > File from Template.
I selected the Property List template.
In the save sheet, I named the file com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest-Daemon.plist.
And made sure that the Group popup was set to SMAppServiceTest.
And that only the App target was checked in the Targets list.
I clicked Create to create the file.
In the property list editor, I added two properties:
Label, with a string value of com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest-Daemon
BundleProgram, with a string value of Contents/MacOS/SMAppServiceTest-Daemon
I added a build phase to copy that property list into app:
In the Project navigator, I selected the SMAppServiceTest project.
In the Project editor, I selected the App target.
At the top I selected Build Phases.
I added a new copy files build phase.
I renamed it to Copy LaunchDaemons Property Lists.
I set its Destination popup to Wrapper.
And set the Subpath field to Contents/Library/LaunchDaemons.
I disclosed the contents of the Copy Bundle Resources build phase.
I dragged com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest-Daemon.plist from the Copy Bundle Resources build phase to the new Copy LaunchDaemons Property Lists build phase.
I made sure that Code Sign on Copy was unchecked.
Register and unregister the daemon
In the Project navigator, I selected ContentView.swift and added the following to the imports section:
import os.log
import ServiceManagement
I then added this global variable:
let log = Logger(subsystem: "com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest", category: "app")
Finally, I added this code to the VStack:
Button("Register") {
do {
log.log("will register")
let service = SMAppService.daemon(plistName: "com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest-Daemon.plist")
try service.register()
log.log("did register")
} catch let error as NSError {
log.log("did not register, \(error.domain, privacy: .public) / \(error.code)")
}
}
Button("Unregister") {
do {
log.log("will unregister")
let service = SMAppService.daemon(plistName: "com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest-Daemon.plist")
try service.unregister()
log.log("did unregister")
} catch let error as NSError {
log.log("did not unregister, \(error.domain, privacy: .public) / \(error.code)")
}
}
IMPORTANT None of this is code is structured as I would structure a real app. Rather, this is the absolutely minimal code needed to demonstrate this API.
Check the app structure
I chose Product > Build and verified that everything built OK. I then verified that the app’s was structured correctly:
I then choose Product > Show Build Folder in Finder.
I opened a Terminal window for that folder.
In Terminal, I changed into the Products/Debug directory and dumped the structure of the app:
% cd "Products/Debug"
% find "SMAppServiceTest.app"
SMAppServiceTest.app
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents/_CodeSignature
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents/_CodeSignature/CodeResources
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents/MacOS
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents/MacOS/SMAppServiceTest.debug.dylib
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents/MacOS/SMAppServiceTest
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents/MacOS/__preview.dylib
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents/MacOS/SMAppServiceTest-Daemon
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents/Resources
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents/Library
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents/Library/LaunchDaemons
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest-Daemon.plist
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents/Info.plist
SMAppServiceTest.app/Contents/PkgInfo
There are a few things to note here:
The com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest-Daemon.plist property list is in Contents/Library/LaunchDaemons.
The daemon executable is at Contents/MacOS/SMAppServiceTest-Daemon.
The app is still built as debug dynamic library (SMAppServiceTest.debug.dylib) but the daemon is not.
Test registration
I chose Product > Run. In the app I clicked the Register button. The program logged:
will register
did not register, SMAppServiceErrorDomain / 1
Error 1 indicates that installing a daemon hasn’t been approved by the user. The system also presented a notification:
Background Items Added
“SMAppServiceTest” added items that can
run in the background for all users. Do you
want to allow this?
Options > Allow
> Don’t Allow
I chose Allow and authenticated the configuration change.
In Terminal, I verified that the launchd daemon was loaded:
% sudo launchctl list com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest-Daemon
{
"LimitLoadToSessionType" = "System";
"Label" = "com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest-Daemon";
"OnDemand" = true;
"LastExitStatus" = 0;
"Program" = "Contents/MacOS/SMAppServiceTest-Daemon";
};
IMPORTANT Use sudo to target the global launchd context. If you omit this you end up targeting the launchd context in which Terminal is running, a GUI login context, and you won't find any launchd daemons there.
I started monitoring the system log:
I launched the Console app.
I pasted subsystem:com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest into the search box.
I clicked “Start streaming”.
Back in Terminal, I started the daemon:
% sudo launchctl start com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest-Daemon
In Console, I saw it log its first light log point:
type: default
time: 17:42:20.626447+0100
process: SMAppServiceTest-Daemon
subsystem: com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest
category: daemon
message: Hello Cruel World!
Note I’m starting the daemon manually because my goal here is to show how to use SMAppService, not how to use XPC to talk to a daemon. For general advice about XPC, see XPC Resources.
Clean up
Back in the app, I clicked Unregister. The program logged:
will unregister
did unregister
In Terminal, I confirmed that the launchd daemon was unloaded:
% sudo launchctl list com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest-Daemon
Could not find service "com.example.apple-samplecode.SMAppServiceTest-Daemon" in domain for system
Note This doesn’t clean up completely. The system remembers your response to the Background Items Added notification, so the next time you run the app and register your daemon it will be immediately available. To reset that state, run the sfltool with the resetbtm subcommand.
Install an Agent Rather Than a Daemon
The above process shows how to install a launchd daemon. Tweaking this to install a launchd agent is easy. There are only two required changes:
In the Copy Launch Daemon Plists copy files build phase, set the Subpath field to Contents/Library/LaunchAgents.
In ContentView.swift, change the two SMAppService.daemon(plistName:) calls to SMAppService.agent(plistName:).
There are a bunch of other changes you should make, like renaming everything from daemon to agent, but those aren’t required to get your agent working.
Enable App Sandbox
In some cases you might want to sandbox the launchd job (the term job to refer to either a daemon or an agent.) This most commonly crops up with App Store apps, where the app itself must be sandboxed. If the app wants to install a launchd agent, that agent must also be sandboxed. However, there are actually four combinations, of which three are supported:
App Sandboxed | Job Sandboxed | Supported
------------- | ------------- | ---------
no | no | yes
no | yes | yes
yes | no | no [1]
yes | yes | yes
There are also two ways to sandbox the job:
Continue to use a macOS > Command Line Tool target for the launchd job.
Use an macOS > App target for the launchd job.
In the first approach you have to use some low-level build settings to enable the App Sandbox. Specifically, you must assign the program a bundle ID and then embed an Info.plist into the executable via the Create Info.plist Section in Binary build setting.
In the second approach you can use the standard Signing & Capabilities editor to give the job a bundle ID and enable the App Sandbox, but you have to adjust the BundleProgram property to account for the app-like wrapper.
IMPORTANT The second approach is required if your launchd job uses restricted entitlements, that is, entitlements that must be authorised by a provisioning profile. In that case you need an app-like wrapper to give you a place to store the provisioning profile. For more on this idea, see Signing a daemon with a restricted entitlement.
For more background on how provisioning profiles authorise the use of entitlements, see TN3125 Inside Code Signing: Provisioning Profiles.
On balance, the second approach is the probably the best option for most developers.
[1] When SMAppService was introduced it was possible to install a non-sandboxed daemon from a sandboxed app. That option is blocked by macOS 14.2 and later.
When I search, it's always people trying to do stuff in the background. I want my app to only do stuff when it is active. And this post https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/685525 seems to have prevented replies from the start. Which means it's just a documentation page and does not belong in the discussion forums at all, because it prevents all discussion.
XPC is the preferred inter-process communication (IPC) mechanism on Apple platforms. XPC has three APIs:
The high-level NSXPCConnection API, for Objective-C and Swift
The low-level Swift API, introduced with macOS 14
The low-level C API, which, while callable from all languages, works best with C-based languages
General:
Forums subtopic: App & System Services > Processes & Concurrency
Forums tag: XPC
Creating XPC services documentation
NSXPCConnection class documentation
Low-level API documentation
XPC has extensive man pages — For the low-level API, start with the xpc man page; this is the original source for the XPC C API documentation and still contains titbits that you can’t find elsewhere. Also read the xpcservice.plist man page, which documents the property list format used by XPC services.
Daemons and Services Programming Guide archived documentation
WWDC 2012 Session 241 Cocoa Interprocess Communication with XPC — This is no longer available from the Apple Developer website )-:
Technote 2083 Daemons and Agents — It hasn’t been updated in… well… decades, but it’s still remarkably relevant.
TN3113 Testing and Debugging XPC Code With an Anonymous Listener
XPC and App-to-App Communication forums post
Validating Signature Of XPC Process forums post
This forums post summarises the options for bidirectional communication
This forums post explains the meaning of privileged flag
Related tags include:
Inter-process communication, for other IPC mechanisms
Service Management, for installing and uninstalling Service Management login items, launchd agents, and launchd daemons
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
Hello,
https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/802443
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/servicemanagement/updating-helper-executables-from-earlier-versions-of-macos
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/ServiceManagement/updating-your-app-package-installer-to-use-the-new-service-management-api#Run-the-sample-launch-agent
Read these.
Earlier we had a setup with SMJobBless, now we have migrated to SMAppService.
Everything is working fine, the new API seems easier to manage, but we are having issues with updating the daemon.
I was wondering, what is the right process for updating a daemon from app side?
What we are doing so far:
App asks daemon for version
If version is lower than expected:
daemon.unregister(), wait a second and daemon.register() again.
The why?
We have noticed that unregistering/registering multiple times, of same daemon, can cause the daemon to stop working as expected. The daemon toggle in Mac Settings -> Login Items & Extensions can be on or off, but the app can still pickup daemon running, but no daemon running in Activity monitor. Registration/unregistration can start failing and nothing helps to resolve this, only reseting with sfltool resetbtm and a restart seems to does the job. This is usually noticeable for test users, testing same daemon version with different app builds.
In production app, we also increase the bundle version of daemon in plist, in test apps we - don't.
I haven't found any sources of how the update of pre-bundled app daemon should work.
Initial idea is register/unregister, but from what I have observed, this seems to mess up after multiple registrations.
I have a theory, that sending the daemon a command to kill itself after app update, would load the latest daemon.
Also, I haven't observed for daemon, with different build versions to update automatically.
What is the right way to update a daemon with SMAppService setup?
Thank you in advance.
Hi all,
I’ve built an Electron application that uses two child processes:
An Express.js server
A Python executable (packaged .exe/binary)
During the development phase, everything works fine — the Electron app launches, both child processes start, and the app functions as expected.
But when I create a production build for macOS, the child processes don’t run.
Here’s a simplified snippet from my electron.mjs:
import { app, BrowserWindow } from "electron";
import { spawn } from "child_process";
import path from "path";
let mainWindow;
const createWindow = () => {
mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({
width: 1200,
height: 800,
webPreferences: {
nodeIntegration: true,
},
});
mainWindow.loadFile("index.html");
// Start Express server
const serverPath = path.join(process.resourcesPath, "app.asar.unpacked", "server", "index.js");
const serverProcess = spawn(process.execPath, [serverPath], {
stdio: "inherit",
});
// Start Python process
const pythonPath = path.join(process.resourcesPath, "app.asar.unpacked", "python", "myapp");
const pythonProcess = spawn(pythonPath, [], {
stdio: "inherit",
});
serverProcess.on("error", (err) => console.error("Server process error:", err));
pythonProcess.on("error", (err) => console.error("Python process error:", err));
};
app.whenReady().then(createWindow);
I’ve already done the following:
Configured package.json with the right build settings
Set up extraResources / asarUnpack to include the server and Python files
Verified both child processes work standalone
Questions:
What’s the correct way to package and spawn these child processes for macOS production builds?
Do I need to move them into a specific location (like Contents/Resources/app.asar.unpacked) and reference them differently?
Is there a more reliable pattern for handling Express + Python child processes inside an Electron app bundle?
Any insights or working examples would be really appreciated!
I'm working on a Mac app that receives a process ID via NSXPCConnection, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to determine whether that process is a native macOS app like Safari—with bundles and all—or just a script launched by something like Node or Python. The executable is signed with a Team ID using codesign.
I was thinking about getting the executable's path as one way to handle it, but I’m wondering if there’s a more reliable method than relying on the folder structure.
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Processes & Concurrency
Tags:
XPC
Inter-process communication
General:
DevForums subtopic: App & System Services > Processes & Concurrency
Processes & concurrency covers a number of different technologies:
Background Tasks Resources
Concurrency Resources — This includes Swift concurrency.
Service Management Resources
XPC Resources
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Processes & Concurrency
So i am pretty new to Xcode, but i have been using Python and other language for some while. But I am quite new to the game of view and view control. So it may be that i have over complicated this a bit - and it may be that I have some wrong understanding of the dependencies and appcontroller (that i thought would be a good idea). So here we have a main file we call it app.swift, we have a startupmanager.swift, a appcoordinator and a dependeciescontainer. But it may be that this is either a overkill - or that I am doing it wrong.
So my thought was that i had a dependeciecontainer, a appcoordinator for the views and a startupmanager that controll the initialized fetching. I have controlled the memory when i run it - checking if it is higher, lower eg - but it was first when i did my 2 days profile i saw a lot of new errors, like this: Fikser(7291,0x204e516c0) malloc: xzm: failed to initialize deferred reclamation buffer (46). and i also get macro errors, probably from the @Query in my feedview.
So my thought was that a depencecie manager and a startupmanager was a good idea together with a app coordinator.
But maybe I am wrong - maybe this is not a good idea? Or maybe I am doing some things twice? I have added a lot of prints and debugs for checking. But it seems that it starts off to heavy?
import SwiftUI
import Combine
@MainActor
class AppCoordinator: ObservableObject {
@Published var isLoggedIn: Bool = false
private var authManager: AuthenticationManager = .shared
private var cancellables = Set<AnyCancellable>()
private let startupManager: StartupManager
private let container: DependencyContainer
@Published var path = NavigationPath()
enum Screen: Hashable, Identifiable {
case profile
case activeJobs
case offers
case message
var id: Self { self }
}
init(container: DependencyContainer) {
self.container = container
self.startupManager = container.makeStartupManager()
setupObserving()
startupManager.start()
print("AppCoordinator initialized!")
}
private func setupObserving() {
authManager.$isAuthenticated
.receive(on: RunLoop.main)
.sink { [weak self] isAuthenticated in
self?.isLoggedIn = isAuthenticated
}
.store(in: &cancellables)
}
func userDidLogout() {
authManager.logout()
path.removeLast(path.count)
}
func showProfile() {
path.append(Screen.profile)
}
func showActiveJobs() {
path.append(Screen.activeJobs)
}
func showOffers() {
path.append(Screen.offers)
}
func showMessage() {
path.append(Screen.message)
}
@ViewBuilder
func viewForDestination(_ destination: Screen) -> some View {
switch destination {
case .profile:
ProfileView()
case .activeJobs:
ActiveJobsView()
case .offers:
OffersView()
case .message:
ChatView()
}
}
@ViewBuilder
func viewForJob(_ job: Job) -> some View {
PostDetailView(
job: job,
jobUserDetailsRepository: container.makeJobUserDetailsRepository()
)
}
@ViewBuilder
func viewForProfileSubview(_ destination: ProfileView.ProfileSubviews) -> some View {
switch destination{
case .personalSettings:
PersonalSettingView()
case .historicData:
HistoricDataView()
case .transactions:
TransactionView()
case .helpCenter:
HelpcenterView()
case .helpContract:
HelpContractView()
}
}
enum HomeBarDestinations: Hashable, Identifiable {
case postJob
case jobPosting
var id: Self { self }
}
@ViewBuilder
func viewForHomeBar(_ destination: HomeBarView.HomeBarDestinations) -> some View {
switch destination {
case .postJob:
PostJobView()
}
}
}
import Apollo
import FikserAPI
import SwiftData
class DependencyContainer {
static var shared: DependencyContainer!
private let modelContainer: ModelContainer
static func initialize(with modelContainer: ModelContainer) {
shared = DependencyContainer(modelContainer: modelContainer)
}
private init(modelContainer: ModelContainer) {
self.modelContainer = modelContainer
print("DependencyContainer being initialized at ")
}
@MainActor
private lazy var userData: UserData = {
return UserData(apollo: Network.shared.apollo)
}()
@MainActor
private lazy var userDetailsRepository: UserDetailsRepository = {
return UserDetailsRepository(userData: makeUserData())
}()
@MainActor
private lazy var jobData: JobData = {
return JobData(apollo: Network.shared.apollo)
}()
@MainActor
private lazy var jobRepository: JobRepository = {
return JobRepository(jobData: makeJobData(), modelContainer: modelContainer)
}()
@MainActor
func makeUserData() -> UserData {
return userData
}
@MainActor
func makeUserDetailsRepository() -> UserDetailsRepository {
return userDetailsRepository
}
@MainActor
func makeStartupManager() -> StartupManager {
return StartupManager(
userDetailsRepository: makeUserDetailsRepository(),
jobRepository: makeJobRepository(),
authManager: AuthenticationManager.shared,
lastUpdateRepository: makeLastUpdateRepository()
)
}
@MainActor
func makeJobData() -> JobData {
return jobData
}
@MainActor
func makeJobRepository() -> any JobRepositoryProtocol {
return jobRepository
}
@MainActor
private lazy var jobUserData: JobUserData = {
return JobUserData(apollo: Network.shared.apollo)
}()
@MainActor
private lazy var jobUserDetailsRepository: JobUserDetailsRepository = {
return JobUserDetailsRepository(jobUserData: makeJobUserData())
}()
@MainActor
func makeJobUserData() -> JobUserData {
return jobUserData
}
@MainActor
func makeJobUserDetailsRepository() -> JobUserDetailsRepository {
return jobUserDetailsRepository
}
@MainActor
private lazy var lastUpdateData: LastUpdateData = {
return LastUpdateData(apollo: Network.shared.apollo)
}()
@MainActor
private lazy var lastUpdateRepository: LastUpdateRepository = {
return LastUpdateRepository(lastUpdateData: makeLastUpdateData())
}()
@MainActor
func makeLastUpdateData() -> LastUpdateData {
return lastUpdateData
}
@MainActor
func makeLastUpdateRepository() -> LastUpdateRepository {
return lastUpdateRepository
}
}```
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Processes & Concurrency
I'm developing a macOS application that tracks the duration of a user's session using a timer, which is displayed both in the main window and in an menu bar extra view. I have a couple of questions regarding the timer's behavior:
What happens to the timer if the user closes the application's window (causing the app to become inactive) but does not fully quit it? Does the timer continue to run, pause, or behave in some other way?
Will the app nap feature stop the timer when app is in-active state?
Service Management framework supports installing and uninstalling services, including Service Management login items, launchd agents, and launchd daemons.
General:
Forums subtopic: App & System Services > Processes & Concurrency
Forums tag: Service Management
Service Management framework documentation
Daemons and Services Programming Guide archived documentation
Technote 2083 Daemons and Agents — It hasn’t been updated in… well… decades, but it’s still remarkably relevant.
EvenBetterAuthorizationSample sample code — This has been obviated by SMAppService.
SMJobBless sample code — This has been obviated by SMAppService.
Sandboxing with NSXPCConnection sample code
WWDC 2022 Session 10096 What’s new in privacy introduces the new SMAppService facility, starting at 07˸07
BSD Privilege Escalation on macOS forums post
Getting Started with SMAppService forums post
Background items showing up with the wrong name forums post
Related forums tags include:
XPC, Apple’s preferred inter-process communication (IPC) mechanism
Inter-process communication, for other IPC mechanisms
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
We are seeing a strange lifecycle issue on multiple MDM-managed iPads where
application(_:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:) is not called after the device is idle overnight.
Even if we terminate the app manually via the app switcher, the next morning the system does not perform a cold launch. Instead, the app resumes directly in:
applicationDidBecomeActive(_:)
This causes all initialization logic that depends on didFinishLaunching to be completely skipped.
This behavior is consistent across four different supervised MDM devices.
Environment
Devices: iPads enrolled in MDM (supervised)
iOS version: 18.3
Xcode: 16.4
macOS: Sequoia 15.7.2
App type: Standard UIKit iOS app
App: Salux Audiometer (App Store app)
Expected Behavior
If the app was terminated manually using the app switcher, the next launch should:
Start a new process
Trigger application(_:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:)
Follow the normal cold-start lifecycle
Actual Behavior
After leaving the iPad idle overnight (8–12 hours):
The next launch skips didFinishLaunching
The app resumes directly in applicationDidBecomeActive
No new process is started
App behaves as if it had been suspended, even though it was manually terminated
Logs (Relevant Extracts)
Day 1 — Normal cold launch
[12:06:44.152 PM] PROCESS_STARTED
[12:06:44.214 PM] DID_FINISH_LAUNCHING_START launchOptions=[]
[12:06:44.448 PM] DID_FINISH_LAUNCHING_END
We then used the app and terminated it via app switcher.
Day 2 — Unexpected resume without cold start
[12:57:49.328 PM] APP_DID_BECOME_ACTIVE
No PROCESS_STARTED
No didFinishLaunching
No cold-start logs
This means the OS resumed the app from a previous state that should not exist.
Reproducible Steps
Use an MDM-enrolled iPad.
Launch the app normally.
Terminate it manually via the multitasking app switcher.
Leave the device idle overnight (8–12 hours).
Launch the app the next morning.
Observe that:
didFinishLaunching does not fire
applicationDidBecomeActive fires directly
Questions for Apple Engineers / Community
Is this expected behavior on MDM-supervised devices in iOS 18?
Are there any known OS-level changes where terminated apps may be revived from disk/memory?
Could MDM restrictions or background restoration policies override app termination?
How can we ensure that our app always performs a clean initialization when launched after a long idle period?
Additional Information
We have full logs from four separate MDM iPads showing identical behavior.
Happy to share a minimal reproducible sample if required.
We are currently developing a VoIP application that supports Local Push extention.
I would like to ask for your advice on how the extension works when the iPhone goes into sleep mode.
Our App are using GCD (Grand Central Dispatch) to perform periodic processing within the extension, creating a cycle by it.
[sample of an our source]
class LocalPushProvider: NEAppPushProvider {
let activeQueue: DispatchQueue = DispatchQueue(label: "com.myapp.LocalPushProvider.ActiveQueue", autoreleaseFrequency: .workItem)
var activeSchecule: Cancellable?
override func start(completionHandler: @escaping (Error?) -> Void) {
:
self.activeSchecule = self.activeQueue.schedule(
after: .init(.now() + .seconds(10)), // start schedule after 10sec
interval: .seconds(10) // interval 10sec
) {
self.activeTimerProc()
}
completionHandler(nil)
}
}
However In this App that we are confirming that when the iPhone goes into sleep mode, self.activeTimerProc() is not called at 10-second intervals, but is significantly delayed (approximately 30 to 180 seconds).
What factors could be causing the timer processing using GCD not to be executed at the specified interval when the iPhone is in sleep mode?
Also, please let us know if there are any implementation errors or points to note.
I apologize for bothering you during your busy schedule, but I would appreciate your response.
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Processes & Concurrency
Tags:
PushKit
CallKit
Network Extension
Dispatch
Hi,
I’m using a Local Push Connectivity Extension and encountering an issue with DispatchSourceTimer.
In my extension, I create a DispatchSourceTimer that is supposed to fire every 1 second. It works as expected at first. However, when the app is in the foreground and the device is locked, the timer eventually stops firing after 1–3 hours.
The extension process is still alive, and no errors are thrown
Has anyone experienced this behavior?
Is this a known limitation for timers inside NEAppPushProvider, or is the extension being deprioritized silently by the system?
Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
I've adopted the new BGContinuedProcessingTask in iOS 26, and it has mostly been working well in internal testing. However, in production I'm getting reports of the tasks failing when the app is put into the background.
A bit of info on what I'm doing: I need to download a large amount of data (around 250 files) and process these files as they come down. The size of the files can vary: for some tasks each file might be around 10MB. For other tasks, the files might be 40MB. The processing is relatively lightweight, but the volume of data means the task can potentially take over an hour on slower internet connections (up to 10GB of data).
I set the totalUnitCount based on the number of files to be downloaded, and I increment completedUnitCount each time a file is completed.
After some experimentation, I've found that smaller tasks (e.g. 3GB, 10MB per file) seem to be okay, but larger tasks (e.g. 10GB, 40MB per file) seem to fail, usually just a few seconds after the task is backgrounded (and without even opening any other apps). I think I've even observed a case where the task expired while the app was foregrounded!
I'm trying to understand what the rules are with BGContinuedProcessingTask and I can see at least four possibilities that might be relevant:
Is it necessary to provide progress updates at some minimum rate? For my larger tasks, where each file is ~40MB, there might be 20 or 30 seconds between progress updates. Does this make it more likely that the task will be expired?
For larger tasks, the total time to complete can be 60–90 mins on slower internet connections. Is there some maximum amount of time the task can run for? Does the system attempt some kind of estimate of the overall time to complete and expire the task on that basis?
The processing on each file is relatively lightweight, so most of the time the async stream is awaiting the next file to come down. Does the OS monitor the intensity of workload and suspend the task if it appears to be idle?
I've noticed that the task UI sometimes displays a message, something along the lines of "Do you want to continue this task?" with a "Continue" and "Stop" option. What happens if the user simply ignores or doesn't see this message? Even if I tap "Continue" the task still seems to fail sometimes.
I've read the docs and watched the WWDC video, but there's not a whole lot of information on the specific issues I mention above. It would be great to get some clarity on this, and I'd also appreciate any advice on alternative ways I could approach my specific use case.
Hi,
This post is coming from frustration of working on using BGContinuedProcessingTask for almost 2 weeks, trying to get it to actually complete in the background after the app is backgrounded.
My process will randomlly finish and not finish and have no idea why.
I'm properly using and setting
task?.progress.totalUnitCount = [some number]
task?.progress.completedUnitCount = [increment as processed]
I know this, because it all looks propler as long as the app insn't backgrounded. So it's not a progress issue. The task will ALWAYS complete.
The device has full power, as it is plugged in as I run from within Xcode. So, it's not a power issue.
Yes, the process will take a few minutes, but I thought that is BGContinuedProcessingTask purpose in iOS 26. For long running process that a user could place in the background and leave the app, assuming the process would actually finish.
Why bother introducing a feature that only works with short tasks that don't actually need long running time in the first place.
Hi,
I have requirement in iOS where application needs to run in the background
It can be a simple hello world program running in the background.
could you shed some light on what is the expected behaviour and is it allowed in iOS.
I have an app that I'm using for my own purposes and is not in the app store. I would like to run an http server in the background for more than the allotted 3 minutes to allow persistent communications with a connected Bluetooth device. The Bluetooth device would poll the service at intervals. Is this possible to do? This app does not need app store approval since it's only for personal use.
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Processes & Concurrency
Tags:
Foundation
IOBluetooth
Core Bluetooth
I'm trying to schedule a background task that will run on an iPhone and I'm looking into creating a task request using BGProcessingTaskRequest and scheduled it using BGTaskScheduler.shared.submit().
Per earliestBeginDate documentation, this property can be used to specify the earliest time a background task will be launched by OS. All clear here.
However, the question is: how is the value interpreted with respect to timezone ? Is the specified date in device timezone ? Is GMT ? Is something else ?
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Processes & Concurrency
Tags:
iOS
Background Tasks
Foundation