Does launchd Beat cron?

Blamemyparents writes "For those who aren't Appleheads, you may not have heard that with Tiger, Apple swapped out old Unix standby cron for their own creation, launchd (Apple mentions it on their OS X page and has the man page for it up as well). Seems like it's a bit nerdy, but this changes a LOT about how *nix systems have done things for many years. Launchd is Apple's replacement for quite a few utilities, including launching and quitting quite a few different things, and getting info from the system and other running processes. This page from Ars Technica talks a bit more in depth about it. Apple has open sourced the thing, and is apparently hoping all the unix kids will take a look."

Flexibility

[Anonymous Coward]

But can it be piped?

salutations

[sakura the mc]

let me know when its in ports and ill try it out
freebsd gets no love around here

This sentence no verb?

[Anonymous Coward]

I have nothing to contribute to this discussion, except for my opinion on how ambiguous headlines are. For example, "Does launched beat cron?" has the following possible meanings (yes, I see it's launchd, but listen):
1) Does as a verb, launchd as n, beat as v, cron as n. That is, a question whether or not the thing "launchd" beats the thing "cron".
2) Does as a verb, launched as adj, Beat as n, cron as v. That is, a question whether or not thing Beat, which has been launched, crons. (Well, "croon" is a verb, so maybe "cron" is too).
3) Does as a noun, launched as v, beat as adj, cron as n. That is, a statement that female deer have launched "Beat cron" -- cron that has been beaten, perhaps.
Any others?

Did anyone else initially think

[Aexia]

that the submitter simply couldn't spell or capitalise correctly?

"Does launchd Beat cron?"

What is that? Some new form of AOL speak?

Re:This sentence no verb?

[Anonymous Coward]

You'll have a ball with the sentence "time flies like an arrow" then.

(Hint to get you started: Groucho Marx pointed out that "fruit flies like a banana")

alert

[fallendove]

Seems like it's a bit nerdy,

Oh God, no! *exits window*

Re:Ahh yes.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes!

If you provide an XSD Schema someone can easily load up the configuration file in an editor that knows how to provide xml completion for your xml config file if it knows what the schema is.

So if I type tag.

XML is a GREAT configuration format. Plus people say xml is hard to parse? What the heck!?!? It's the most parsable format out there with dozens of FAST parsers and tools for dealing with it. There could be nothing more open and less proprietary than XML.

Previous message no content?

[QuietLagoon]

Any others?

No, you've covered them all.

Re:Not a cron replacement, a init replacement

[gstoddart]

Because XML configuration files are self-validating.

As opposed to all of those depressed, self-loathing DOC files out there?

Re:Submitter is confused

[bman08]

In other words, We're not amused.

Re:From the apple page:

[Captain Irreverence]

So yes, it is a cron replacement.

On a related note, does anyone else think the phrase "cron job" sounds vaguely obscene? I can think of many a time I was doing a little system administration while purring "Come on, baby. Give me a cron job. You know you want to..."

Re:Wait, wait, wait...

[Paradise Pete]

If you add all the minutes wasted over all the people who use the OS over its life, that's a hell of a lot of man-hours.

Yeah, no kidding. I must boot at least once every few months or so, so pretty soon that's going to add up to...uh, a couple of minutes.

Re:From the apple page:

[Anonymous Coward]

Cron is SO much better, certainly in my opinion. Its all down to the config which cron wins hands down: http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-7.2-M anual/custom-guide/cron-task.html [redhat.com]

Re:From the apple page:

[Storlek]

It works the same way a limousine is nothing like a tricycle.

Re:From the apple page:

[Guildencrantz]

There's always the "Did I fuck up the cron job?" issue. I've heard more than one person new to cron swear because his cron job didn't go off when he thought it would; apparently asterisks confuse some people.

~/Matt

Re:From the apple page:

[netsrek]

ah shit. and here I was thinking Tiger was all fucked up. thanks! Who said the intarweb was full of fuck-sticks? They're wrong!

Re:As Seen On TV is a Troll

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm guessing the fact that he posts consistent, clear thoughts that illustrate his point of view is reason enough to label him a troll. I mean, he doesn't misspell words AND he dares to challenge long-standing *nix groupthinks - what more evidence do you need?

In short, all I'm seeing so far towards the guy is backlash from people mired in groupthink. They like doing things they way they've always done things, and there's no reason to change things at all - and let's not even get started on that GUI fad, it'll be gone tomorrow, CLI is king.

Re:Less Compatible?

[BoydWaters]

> ...USC Berkeley...

Awesome. One incorrect letter -- the most succinct way of pissing off Northern Californians and Southern Californians I've yet encountered.

does launchd beat cron?

[ni5mo]

according to googlefight...

no! [googlefight.com]

Re:Not a cron replacement, a init replacement

[justins]

So I think what Apple did rules. They didn't ask requirements from anyone, they had a flash of inspiration, created something awesome that works good for them, and then said 'hey, if you want to use this, go ahead!'

It should be noted that Sun's new startup system in Solaris was created via a considerably less inspired process. Divine grace was not involved. One guy wore a tie. Some of the engineers don't even drive hybrids. I'd steer clear of it, is what I'm saying.

LOTR

[MrGHemp]

My favorite line from the article: "For Tiger, Apple created launchd: one launch daemon to rule them all."

whoa

MAAAN!

[sunwolf]

(Apple mentions it on their OS X page and has the man page for it up as well)

YEAAH! TAKE THAT FEMINISTS! APPLE'S ON OUR SIDE! Now I have to go do manly things like drink beer, watch football, and engage in stupid activities like juggling grenades.

Re:As Seen On TV obviously needs attention ("we"??

[jkh]

Well, since you mention it.. If you're reading this, ASOTV, please drop me an email. Nobody's going to eat you, but we'd like to have a discrete word... Thanks.

Re:grok the improvement

[toddbu]

bad directory structure

And I suppose that you like C:\ better?

I forget, was my CDROM drive D: or E:? I'd better call my mom and ask her. She's sure to know.

Naming conventions

[Anonymous Coward]

How did they resist calling it iLaunch? Must be some new guy working there.