LingonAn easy to use yet powerful utility that runs things automatically on your Mac
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 the system function called "launchd". This means that you can also edit or remove jobs created by other apps. And the system handles running the jobs in the background so you don't need to have Lingon open after you have saved your job.
Lingon X 2.0 only costs US$ 10!
Download Lingon X 2.0 from here
Free to download and try out. Then you can choose to buy it or not.
Buy a license for Lingon X 2.0 here
EULA(Previous licenses bought after 2014-07-31 can be used in Lingon X 2.0 for free)
Download version 1.0 here (a new license works with 1.0 as well)
Lingon 3 only costs US$ 5!
Get Lingon 3 in Mac App Store
The new Lingon X 2.0 has many new features and improvements:
There are 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.
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 2.0 requires OS X Yosemite 10.10.
Lingon X 1.0 can be used on OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and later. If you buy a 2.0 license now you can use that same license for version 1.0 until you update your system to OS X Yosemite 10.10. Download version 1.0 here
Lingon 3 requires OS X 10.7 Lion or later.
A great utility...its UI is awesome
Dave Hamilton, Mac Geek Gab & The Mac Observer about Lingon 3
| Lingon 3 | Lingon X 2.0 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | US$ 5 | US$ 10 |
| Upgrade price | US$ 7 (from any Mac App Store version or Lingon X 1.0) | |
| Site license | US$ 100 | |
| 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, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish |
| Requirements | 10.7 Lion and later | 10.10 Yosemite and later (Lingon X 1.0 works on 10.8 and later) |
| 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.
A license bought on or after the 1st of August 2014 will work directly with Lingon X 2.0 (if it doesn't register automatically, insert the information manually into License... in the Lingon X menu). If you have bought a license before that date you need to buy an upgrade license to use Lingon X 2.0.
Yes. Version 1 of Lingon X works perfectly for 10.8 and 10.9 and I haven't noticed any issues with it in 10.10 Yosemite. And it is still supported in that any major issue will be fixed but there won't be any more features added.
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.
Unfortunately no at this time.
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 Enabled checkbox. If you want to permanently delete the job you can do it with "Delete Job" (for Lingon 3) and "Delete" (for Lingon X) 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 will 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 built-in store or use the web store.
Choose License... from the Lingon X menu and input the exact values you received in the confirmation mail.
Choose License... from the Lingon X menu and change the values. If you already have a working license you can hold down the Option key to be able to 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.
Jobs that aren't enabled are shown in a gray color to distinguish those from the ones that will run.
Select a job and then choose Revert To in the File menu and then choose the date of the version that you want to revert to. This feature a path based so if you delete a job you can create a new file with the same name in the same folder and then choose an older version of the job.
Choose LoginWindow at the LimitLoadToSessionType in Advanced and then it will run when the login window appears and there is then no need to run the job as root.
You need to run a job as root to change the UserName field.
Generally the language used is determined by your system setting in System Preferences - Language & Text/Region (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 Lingon X uses to e.g. English you can do this by writing this command in Terminal:
defaults write com.peterborgapps.LingonX AppleLanguages '(en)'
If your Mac is at sleep when a job is scheduled to run, it will run directly once your Mac has been turned on again. And if it should have run multiple times during the time it was asleep it will coalesce them so it will only run once.
The info button shows what the saved plist will contain after the job is saved as well as the path to the file. You cannot edit the plist directly in that window.
The timeline mode shows when the jobs that has a defined date when it will run. It shows the dates one year forward from today but it does not show the times set for "Repeat interval" in Time as they cannot be accurately determined.
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
If this isn't checked, it will stop the job and the job will not run until it is checked
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