Launchd

launchd is the service manager on macOS. resticprofile can schedule a profile via a user agent or a daemon in launchd.

User agent

A user agent is generated when you set schedule-permission to user.

It consists of a plist file in the folder ~/Library/LaunchAgents:

A user agent mostly runs with the privileges of the user. But if you backup some specific files, like your contacts or your calendar for example, you will need to give more permissions to resticprofile and restic.

For this to happen, you need to start the agent or daemon from a console window first (resticprofile will ask if you want to do so)

If your profile is a backup profile called remote, the command to run manually is:

launchctl start local.resticprofile.remote.backup

Once you grant the permission, the background agents/daemon will be able to run normally.

There’s some information in this thread: https://github.com/restic/restic/issues/2051

TODO: I’m going to try to compile a comprehensive how-to guide from all the information from the thread. Stay tuned!

Special case of schedule-permission=user with sudo

Please note if you schedule a user agent while running resticprofile with sudo: the user agent will be registered to the root user, and not your initial user context. It means you can only see it (status) and remove it (unschedule) via sudo.

Daemon

A launchd daemon is generated when you set schedule-permission to system.

It consists of a plist file in the folder /Library/LaunchDaemons. You have to run resticprofile with sudo to schedule, check the status and unschedule the profile.