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launchd Bytes Written

Hi folks. I think I have a launchd problem.


Overnight my workstation has launchd entries to the point it's Gigabytes-huge. Overnight, my launchd has written over 29 GB worth of stuff. Activity Monitor shows this. Read 273 MB. There is one PID (1). Eventually my startup SSD has no more room, so things go completely wonky, everything stops, and I have to reboot in a state of messiness that I have to fix things when rebooted.


Questions:

  1. Why is it writing anything? It's a daemon launcher.
  2. What is it writing? Can I reduce this somehow?
  3. Where is it writing it? Viewable in console?


The feedback that could be a culprit...crash reports say dyld: launch, loading dependent libraries. They are recent. Other crash reports:


Oct 25 12:05:27 MyBox launchservicesd[87]: SecTaskLoadEntitlements failed error=22


0x11003d000 -        0x11003dff7  liblaunch.dylib (765.70.2) <4B800A8C-6C75-3279-92E0-FBA668812B55> /usr/lib/system/liblaunch.dylib
0x110c65000 -        0x110d8cfff  com.apple.LaunchServices (728.14 - 728.14) <E07C91E8-1E21-3BB6-B7BE-F708518DFD1A> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/LaunchServices

...and...

0x10f4d4000 -        0x10f4d4ff7  liblaunch.dylib (765.70.2) <4B800A8C-6C75-3279-92E0-FBA668812B55> /usr/lib/system/liblaunch.dylib
0x110101000 -        0x110228fff  com.apple.LaunchServices (728.14 - 728.14) <E07C91E8-1E21-3BB6-B7BE-F708518DFD1A> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/LaunchServices

...and...

0x7fff8a199000 -     0x7fff8a2c0fff  com.apple.LaunchServices (728.14 - 728.14) <E07C91E8-1E21-3BB6-B7BE-F708518DFD1A> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/LaunchServices
0x7fff9bdff000 -     0x7fff9bdffff7  liblaunch.dylib (765.70.2) <4B800A8C-6C75-3279-92E0-FBA668812B55> /usr/lib/system/liblaunch.dylib


These types of crashes, all point to liblaunch.dylib and come from iTunes, Mail.app, and silnite, whatever that is. So basically crashing comes from running applications when the SSD runs out of memory. That's my guess. This happens when I'm not on the box, working.


Is there any way I can reduce this? It seems sitting on my workstation reduces the launchd entries massively. For the past 30 minutes, it's raised maybe 1 GB.


Cheers

Mac Pro, OS X 10.11

Posted on Oct 25, 2020 9:25 AM

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Oct 25, 2020 8:25 PM in response to BioRich

I'm not sure about the situation, but it may help to run EtreCheck and post the report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper. This will allow us to review the software you have installed in case any of it is known to cause problems.


Also you can try booting into Safe Mode to see if the same thing happens. Safe Mode disables unnecessary drivers and most third party drivers and apps from automatically running including Login Items. If the problem does not occur overnight using Safe Mode, then you can use the EtreCheck report to figure out which items may be interfering.

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Oct 26, 2020 6:30 AM in response to HWTech

OK, so overnight, things slowed down. I deleted some logs that I didn't see relevant. launchd had 36 GB written last night to 41 GB at 9am. That's rational.


I should start saving my Etrechecks. I did some recently to see that MRT was going haywire, and had to re-install an older version. I didn't let it run in safe mode overnight though.


I'll repost if things start acting up gain, with some Etrecheck reports. Cheers

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Oct 27, 2020 4:37 AM in response to BioRich

OK, happened last night as well. Every 5 minutes I took a screenshot of the startup drive volume "available" and the Activity Monitor Bytes Written, and kernel_task. The kernel was apparently writing stuff. After 5am my SSD went down to low availability and put up a warning ("Almost empty", which I caught in the images). Then it opened up again like it flushed.


I have no clue what's going on.


Is there a way I can rebuild this volume using a fresh El Capitan and bring over my data bit by bit?

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launchd Bytes Written

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