Mac OS X Unleashed

By John Ray and William C. Ray

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Author
  • Acknowledgments
  • Tell Us What You Think!
  • Introduction
  • Part I: Introduction to Mac OS X
  • Chapter 1. Mac OS X Component Architecture
  • Chapter 2. Installing Mac OS X
  • Chapter 3. Mac OS X Basics
  • Chapter 4. The Finder: Working with Files and Applications
  • Chapter 5. Running Classic Mac OS Applications
  • Part II: Inside Mac OS X
  • Chapter 6. Native Utilities and Applications
  • Chapter 7. Internet Communications
  • Chapter 8. Installing Third-Party Applications
  • Part III: User-Level OS X Configuration
  • Chapter 9. Network Setup
  • Chapter 10. Printer and Font Management
  • Chapter 11. Additional System Components
  • Part IV: Introduction to BSD Applications
  • Chapter 12. Introducing the BSD Subsystem
  • Chapter 13. Common Unix Shell Commands: File Operations
  • Part V: Advanced Command-Line Concepts
  • Chapter 14. Advanced Shell Concepts and Commands
  • Chapter 15. Command-Line Applications and Application Suites
  • Chapter 16. Command-Line Software Installation
  • Chapter 17. Troubleshooting Software Installs, and Compiling and Debugging Manually
  • Chapter 18. Advanced Unix Shell Use: Configuration and Programming (Shell Scripting)
    • Customizing Your Shell Environment and Storing Data
    • Automating Tasks with Shell Scripts
    • Making Shell Scripts Start at Login or System Startup
    • Summary
  • Part VI: Server/Network Administration
  • Chapter 19. X Window System Applications
  • Chapter 20. Command-Line Configuration and Administration
  • Chapter 21. AppleScript
  • Chapter 22. Perl Scripting and SQL Connectivity
  • Chapter 23. File and Resource Sharing with NetInfo
  • Chapter 24. User Management and Machine Clustering
  • Chapter 25. FTP Serving
  • Chapter 26. Remote Access and Administration
  • Chapter 27. Web Serving
  • Part VII: Server Health
  • Chapter 28. Web Programming
  • Chapter 29. Creating a Mail Server
  • Chapter 30. Accessing and Serving a Windows Network
  • Chapter 31. Server Security and Advanced Network Configuration
  • Chapter 32. System Maintenance
  • Appendix A. Command-Line Reference
  • Appendix B. Administration Reference

Making Shell Scripts Start at Login or System Startup

Now that you know how to write shell scripts and run them as commands, making them start when you log in to your account, or making them start when the system starts, is straightforward.

You're already familiar with the Login preferences settings, and your ability to customize what programs start when you log in from it. An executable shell script is just another program as far as Unix is concerned, so you can configure scripts to start on login from there. If you're going to be working from the command line with any frequency, you might want to consider adding a single shell script to your login preferences, and using that script to execute other scripts as necessary.

To add a shell script as an item that starts at system startup is also quite simple. Create a subdirectory for the script you want to run in the /System/Library/StartupItems/ folder, and place the script or a link to the script in the directory, giving it the same name as the directory. When the system starts, the script will execute. Remember that it's not going to have a terminal attached, so if it does things such as echo data, the data will have nowhere to appear. In Chapter 20, "Command-Line Configuration and Administration," we'll cover the contents of the plist (properties list) file that you can add to the directory with your script to customize some of its behavior.

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