Setting up service in IOS Devices

July 24, 2012

ipad
IOS
OSX
goagent

Sometimes it would be convenient to have some APPs or daemons running in background after system start up. And you can do this by using launchd in Mac OS X or IOS Devices (iPad, iPhone) etc.

launchd is a unified, open-source service management framework for starting, stopping and managing daemons, applications, processes, and scripts. Wikipedia

Take setting goagent as service for example

Why take goagent? The first time I needed luanchd is I want goagent running all the time after my iPad start up.

Create a plist file and name it com.goagent.plist (up to you).

<?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>com.goagent</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
            <string>python</string>
            <string>/var/mobile/goagent-local/proxy.py</string>
        </array>
        <key>KeepAlive</key>
        <true/>
        <key>StandardOutPath</key>
        <string>/tmp/goagent.log</string>
        <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
        <string>/tmp/goagent.log</string>
        <key>Debug</key>
        <true/>
    </dict>
</plist>

What this file describe is the same as you type python proxy.py in terminal.

Put it under directory /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/. In terminal Activate service by:

launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.goagent.plist

This assume you can ssh to your devices.

PS: While you open files in this directory with your text editor you will see symbols that don’t make senses. Don’t be panic. It just XML files. You can install plist Editor for Windows to open and edit it.

Take setting goagent as service for example

References