prevent launchctl from starting a anonymous process

Question

I have installed dnsmasq and now I want to be able to start it with launchctl. The problem is that every time I start the app launchctl starts an anonyous process instead of using the specified label.

10247   -   0x100107c30.anonymous.dnsmasq
-       0   com.example.dnsmasq

But I want it to be

10247    0  com.example.dnsmasq

The problem with the anonymous process is that I can't stop it with launchctl. When I run

launchctl stop com.example.dnsmasq

the anonymous process still stays alive.

Here is my property file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.example.dnsmasq</string>    
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
      <string>/usr/local/sbin/dnsmasq</string>
        <string>-p</string>
        <string>2155</string>
        <string>-R</string>
        <string>-A</string>
        <string>/.dev/127.0.0.1</string>
        <string>-x</string>
        <string>/usr/local/var/run/dnsmasq.pid</string>
    </array>
  <key>RunAtLoad</key>
  <false/>
  <key>KeepAlive</key>
  <false/>
</dict>
</plist>

Any idea on how to fix this?

Answer 1

That isn't actually launchctl creating a new process; it's most likely dnsmasq itself. If it fork()s into the background, launchd can't tell; then when it talks to launchd, launchd creates an anonymous entry for it. Make sure dnsmasq doesn't background itself.

(The - listed for the regular launchctl list output indicates that the original dnsmasq process exited.)