ars.technica's Description of Tiger's Launching Mechanisms.Back to the subject, here's a little more info THAT I've found about launchd: Links As a side note, see Oneota's comment below - to get the 'UNIX' version of a file path in AppleScript, you can use the builtin POSIX path function that's part of Standard Additions. It has some limitations (more on those at the end). I don't think launchd is actually the universal 'better' way. Thanks to Ryan for help with this and this old hint for the posix_path() function. Finally, drop this script app into your Login Items in System Preferences, and you're set to go. If this happens, simply duplicate (command-D) the script application and the duplicate should work. Apple seems to have some weird bug that will sometimes still cause it to appear in the dock. Now test your script by double-clicking on the script application.

Right after the very first line, paste this in: NSUIElement1Save the plist file and quit the editor. Finally, to make the whole thing invisible, open up the ist file inside of the Contents folder of the AppleScript application. Drop your shell script in there (mine is called script.sh make sure to edit the first line of the AppleScript to reflect the script's name). Go to this location and control-click on the script and choose 'Show Package Contents' and go into Contents -> Resources -> Scripts. Then save this AppleScript as an Application Bundle to some location. Open up ScriptEditor in the Applications folder and paste in this code.

This hint is for those that wish to run an AppleScript or shell script every time on login, but want it to happen quietly in the background without appearing in the dock.

Mac os x shell script date