LingonAn easy to use yet powerful utility that runs things automatically on your Mac
Run whatever you want, whenever you want.
Lingon can start an app, a script or run a command automatically whenever you want it to. You can schedule it to run at a specific time, regularly or when something special happens.
Lingon can also make sure that an app or a script automatically restarts if it crashes. Lingon can do all this for you and much more.
Lingon X is based on the great Lingon 3 and eXtends it with new features like running jobs as root and at multiple dates. It is now even easier to use yet much more powerful.
Lingon lets you run things automatically by modifying configuration files for a built-in system function called launchd. So the system handles running the jobs so you don't need to have Lingon open after you have saved your job.
There are now two major versions of Lingon available: Lingon 3 and Lingon X. Lingon 3 can only be found in Mac App Store and Lingon X is only available outside the Mac App Store. This is because Mac App Store rules limits what an app can do and Lingon X e.g. can run jobs as root and that is not possible in Mac App Store.
Both are easy to use but Lingon X is the latest and greatest version. But Lingon 3 is still for sale for those who still are running 10.7 Lion and want the comfort and convenience of Mac App Store. See the comparison table below for all the details.
Please note that Lingon X is only for OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and Lingon 3 is only for OS X 10.7 Lion and later.
If you are using OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard you can get Lingon 2 instead.
A great utility...its UI is awesome
Dave Hamilton, Mac Geek Gab & The Mac Observer about Lingon 3
| Lingon 3 | Lingon X | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | US$ 5 | US$ 10 |
| Upgrade price | US$ 7 (from any Mac App Store versions) | |
| Site license | US$ 150 | |
| Easy to use | ||
| Run jobs automatically | ||
| Typical user | Beginner/Intermediate | Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced |
| Buy with Apple-ID | ||
| Buy without Apple-ID | ||
| Audited by Apple | ||
| Run job as root | ||
| Run job for many users | ||
| Multiple dates | ||
| See system jobs (read-only) | ||
| Filter jobs in GUI | ||
| Languages | English, Swedish | English, Chinese (Simplified), Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish |
| Requirements | 10.7 Lion and later | 10.8 Mountain Lion |
| Buy |  |
|
| EULA | Apple | Peter Borg Apps |
By using the licensed or demo version of Lingon X you agree to the following:
Lingon is the Swedish name for lingonberry and hence the icon.
You can download the standard and you will have all the functionality except that you can't save a job until you buy a license.
Lingon X uses the new Gatekeeper feature in Mac OS X (see more here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5290 so you need to check your security settings in System Preferences - Security & Privacy. You can also ctrl-click on Lingon X and then choose Open and then you will get a dialog in which you can set that you want to run it.
The easiest way to just stop a job is just uncheck everything under "When" in the job and then just save it. In Lingon X you can also use the Disabled checkbox. If you want to permanently delete the job you can do it with "Delete Job" in the File menu.
The file must first of all be a valid plist which you can check in Terminal with the plutil command. Then it needs at least a key for Label and either Program or ProgramArguments.
Drag Lingon 3 to the trash, and you can found the preference file here: <your home folder>/Library/Preferences/com.peterborgapps.Lingon3.plist. You can see that folder in Finder by choosing Go to Folder in the Go menu and then write:
~/Library/Preferences/
Yes, in Lingon X you can run it as root. In Lingon 3 there is no way to run it directly as root by using the Lingon 3 GUI to comply with Mac App Store rules. But you can still use Lingon 3 to create the job and then choose Reveal in Finder from the File menu and then move the plist file to /Library/LaunchDaemons and restart.
Just press the plus (+) button on the right hand side if you want to set multiple dates to run your job in Time in Lingon X.
launchd is a system process which is included in all Macs which launches everything in the system. It uses plist files to allow configurations of what should be loaded and when it should run. Lingon writes such plist files and then launchd takes care of launching everything.
You can read more about it by writing any of these commands in Terminal:man launchd.plist
man launchctl
man launchd
Usually when a job doesn't run it is because the underlying system process (launchd - see above) doesn't think that the job is correct or that it is too complex. One of the things that you can't do is to use a pipe or use something like "exec" or "%gt;". But you can solve most problem easily when you have a really complex command by putting that command into a script and then run that script with Lingon. You can also check to see that the whole paths to any commands are included and if you run a script that references or outputs files, that you include the whole path. Also make sure that if you want to run an AppleScript to run it with the command /usr/bin/osascript or compile it as an application. And for any script that you run make sure that the script is set as an executable or is run with another command such as /usr/bin/python /path/to/script
Yes. And if you have saved the job in the default folder (~/Library/LaunchAgents) it start automatically after a restart.
There isn't any built-in support for quitting a normal application. But you can do it with a AppleScript command. E.g. to quit Mail write exactly this in Run:
/usr/bin/osascript -e 'tell application "Mail" to quit'
Yes.
Only the first Repeat Interval in Time is considered when it is saved if you create multiple Repeat Intervals.
Choose Purchase... from the Lingon X menu and from there you can choose if you want to use the secure included store or use the web store.
Choose License... from the Lingon X menu and input the exact values you received in the confirmation mail.
If you have registered Lingon X it will show a thank-you message when you choose License... But if you hold the Option (Alt) key when choosing License... from the Lingon X menu, you can change the values.
Yes. And if you are registered as a company in EU and has a valid VAT ID you can buy it without VAT.
Generally the language uses is determined by your system setting in System Preferences - Language & Text (see http://support.apple.com/kb/PH6467 for more information). But that setting applies to all apps and if you only want to change the language that Smultron uses to e.g. English you can do this by writing this command in Terminal:
defaults write com.peterborgapps.LingonX AppleLanguages '(en)'
Compared to previous releases Lingon X 1.0 has these new features:
You can choose to run your jobs for either only yourself, for every user when they log in or as root e.g. directly when the computer starts up. (Please note that you many need to authenticate as an administrator when using the last two settings.)
You need to give your job a unique name which no other job on the computer uses or it will not run properly. If you don't give it a name Lingon will give it an automatic name.
Write a path to an app or a script or write a command. The easiest way to get everything right is to use the Choose... button and choose what you want to run. If you write a script please use the whole paths to any commands and if it complex and/or uses things like | or > it will not run properly so then it is better to write a script with it and then run that script with Lingon instead
Here you choose when your job should run
The options are taken directly from the launchd.plist definitions. You can read more about them here: man launchd.plist