launchd/launchctl Error 78 when scheduling a BASH script on an external drive

Zurarczurx wrote:

Thinking out loud (i.e. don't know if it can be done) - could you create a saved search in Finder that looks for the rating and then backs up the images in this folder?

Thanks for the suggestion. I a) Didn't know you could save searches or b) add addition qualifiers.

I discovered that there is a 'Rating' in the search but it did not seem to find any of the photos where I have an assignment.

I checked More Info but there was no place to assign a Rating. From Google, I found instructions to use COMMAND+# to assign a rating but I was not able to get that working nor could I find where the rating is stored. A test and dump of the metadata for a photo did not show any Rating information.

My logic is the following. It is designed to reduce the binary introspection of metadata in the photos

1. Read all .XMP files looking for a rating of 1 or more. When found save the YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS to a list
2. Read all photos (RAW files, JPG, TIF, DNG etc). If the file name matches one in the list, skip. If not get the rating and if greater than 1 save the YYYYMMMDD-HHMMSS in the list.
3. Using the list, create a BASH script with 'cp -p /path/YYYYMMMDD-HHMMSS* /keeper' (-p is important). Execute the script.
4. Start Cloudberry to sync /Keeper to AWS S3.

So, interesting exercise but doesn't help me get any closer to fixing the error 78 problem.

@den.tred what the keeper_backup.sh is not relevant unless you tell me launchd introspects the BASH script.

It runs fine stand-alone. It has multiple steps related with a Python selection of candidates, local copies, and cloud transfers.

Neither keeper_backup.stdout or keeper_backup.stderr are created from launchd.

Now, what you did get me to the check was the permissions of the service that does run against this was that doesn't

heliotype:Keeper paul1$ ls -hl keeper_backup.sh
-rwx------@ 1 paul1  staff   1.0K 11 Feb 08:07 keeper_backup.sh

heliotype:Keeper paul1$ ls -hl ~/Scripts/daily/photo_backup.sh
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 paul1  staff   2.4K  8 Feb 08:01 /Users/paul1/Scripts/daily_photo_backup.sh

Now I find I can't give READ or EXECUTION to everyone. The /Volumes/Keeper only has me as having access but I can't find how to open that point up. When I access 'Get Info' for the Volume or any find, all I see is my permission but I can't change anything. If it matters, the volume is exFAT.

Here is what I've tried on the file but I suspect it is not working because it doesn't align with the permissions on the volume. I also cannot use the following at the Volumes level even under SUDO.

heliotype:Keeper paul1$ chmod -v -v 0755 keeper_backup.sh
keeper_backup.sh: 0100700 [-rwx------ ] -> 0100755 [-rwxr-xr-x ]
heliotype:Keeper paul1$ ls -hl keeper_backup.sh
  -rwx------@ 1 paul1  staff   1.0K 11 Feb 08:07 keeper_backup.sh

So, looking for help in trying to set permissions.

den.thed wrote:

Backup is not and should not be that complicated and I would scrap that whole idea.

@den.thed I appreciate your are trying to help by saying I have the wrong solution so here's my backup challenge. Sometimes a fresh look can find a completely different approach.

I want to backup my 'keeper' photos. 'Keepers' are those photos which have a rating of 1 or more. Depending on photo type, the rating value will either be stored in the photo file itself or an associated XMP side car file. The rating is not exposed hence the need for the Python program to introspect files to find them. When I find one I want to back up all related files to processing. They are all prefixed YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.*.

If you have any ideas of how to apply your approach to my problem and backup the results to AWS S3 I'm all ears.

And I am also using Timemachine and RSYNC to provide backups onsite plus MSP360 Cloudberry Backup for MAC for backups to AWS S3.

den.thed wrote:

To make and keep things simple, I would copy the "Keepers" to a Folder and then periodically backup that Folder to one or two of those other locations.

That's what keepers_backup.sh does.

The problem I'm having is that the launchd service definition throws an error 78 and does not run. What idea's do you have on the issue?

As I noted in a previous post, I was not able to set the keeper_backup.sh with the permissions for others to READ or EXECUTE it. This was also true for the /Volumes/Keepers volume. I've discovered that exFAT volumes do not support permissions or ownership.

I copied the keeper_backup.sh to ~/Scripts (a directory I created for LAUNCHD work) and changed the references in the PLIST from /keeper to /Scripts.

<?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.keeper2_backup.app</string>
        
        <key>Program</key>
			<string>/Users/paul1/Scripts/keeper_backup.sh</string>
			
		<key>StandardOutPath</key>
			<string>/Users/paul1/Scripts/keeper_backup.stdout</string>
			
		<key>StandardErrorPath</key>
			<string>/Users/paul1/Scripts/keeper_backup.stderr</string>
			
		<key>WorkingDirectory</key>
			<string>/Users/paul1/Scripts</string>
        
		<key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
			<dict>
				<key>Weekday</key>
					<integer>1</integer>
				<key>Hour</key>
					<integer>20</integer>
				<key>Minute</key>
					<integer>0</integer>
			</dict>
    </dict>
</plist>

As an additional safety check, I unloaded the previous definition and created a version two of the service. I loaded it and was able to get it to run with

launchctl kickstart gui/`id -u`/com.keeper2_backup.app

So, with all of the LAUNCHD references pointing to where the system has WRITE access, the services is working. I have some errors in pathnames which I need to clean up but at least is running

Hope this helps others who come later.

woodmeister50 wrote:

You can take a much simpler approach than launchd and that is to use the macOS Automator app. you can easily use it to "wrap" any type of task and have it run on a scheduled basis.

OMG! Thank you! I had no idea AUTOMATOR existed.

I found LAUNCD looking for a replacement for SYSTEMD that I use on my Linux systems. Shows I should cast a broader net when looking for how to do things on MACos which I'm new too.

I'm taking a breather after battling the LAUNCHD and exFAT (no ownership/permissions) issues, I've not resolved, and will try to simplify using AUTOMATOR.