launchd: launch on mount of SPECIFIC volume?

cool question!

the easiest way is:
download lingon:
http://switch.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/lingon/Lingon-2.1.zip
open it
create a new plist and select "run it every time a volume is mounted"
Like argument program plist select a script (i suggest save the script inside your volume, in this way when you mount a different disk, you have simply log error in system.log)

at the moment, no more ideas.

The StartOnMount key only accepts a Boolean, so it's going to run every time ANY volume is mounted. You'd have to write your script to examine the list of volumes and decide whether or not it needed to run at that point.

You might also be able to do this with a watch path, but volume names are not guaranteed to be unique, so that might have some undesirable side-effects, too.

omgoleus wrote:
The watch path could work fine, but it appears that using the watch path implies KeepAlive True. That is to say, you can't have it run ONLY when the path first appears; as long as the path exists, launchd will keep the job alive.

I don't believe that's true at all.

one way to deal with this is to attach a folder action to /Volumes and make the script that it runs check the names of added volumes and if it contains the name you want execute the command you want it to execute. of course folder actions use launchd with "WatchPaths" so this is in effect the same thing but it's the only way I know how to check only the names of added volumes as opposed to all mounted volumes.

So if launchd is configured as such;

<?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.apple.WatchForFlashDriveGPSL</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/Users/kkaiser/Desktop/AutoFlash.scpt</string>
</array>
<key>StartOnMount</key>
<true/>
</dict>
</plist>

It should run AutoFlash.scpt every time any volume including a flash drive is attached to the machine. Only it doesn't seem to work, anyone have an idea on this?

The following script when run outside of launchd works just like it should. Which in this case is just to launch MacScript.app and all that does right now is open the flash drive.

AutoFlash.scpt;

property flashState : 2
set triggerDisk to "GPSL"
set script2Run to (path to desktop as Unicode text) & "MacScript.app"
tell application "Finder"
if disk triggerDisk exists then --The file is found, therefore, the flash drive is present
if flashState = 2 then --This indicates that MacScript.scpt needs to be called
run script file script2Run
set flashState to 0 --After the script has been run, change the flashState property
end if
else --This is ONLY accessed when the disk no longer exists, therefore, the flash drive is NOT present
if flashState = 0 then --Since the drive is no longer present, the value of flashState must be re-set to 2 in order to prepare for the next hookup
set flashState to 2
end if
end if
end tell

please start a new thread on this. this is a different issue and should be discussed separately.

The Unix shell doesn't know how to execute AppleScript files. I'd try passing either the open or osascript commands the path to your file instead of trying to run it directly.

Umm, amazing how reading the first response to a question can lead one to think of something.

This is the same idea suggested by Federico in the first response in this thread. didn't you read it?
It might be good enough for your purposes but technically speaking it's not a perfect solution because if you attach another drive while the drive with your script is already attached, the script will execute again even though it shouldn't. if that doesn't bother you then fine. otherwise, the folder action trick I mentioned works completely cleanly.

omgoleus wrote:
There is no real solution,

why do you say that? the folder action method works perfectly.

but the workaround in the first reply is adequate for my purposes: use launchd to set up an agent to run on mount of a volume, and point it to a script which is on the volume in question.