Make a script/app run on logout

Question

We all know that Mac OS X has the very useful Login Items functionality which lets you, among other things, set up apps/scripts to run when you log in.

I'm looking for a way to setup a list of scripts/apps that run when I log out. A "Logout Items" list, if you will.
Basically, I want to write a few little cleanup scripts for myself that will run automatically when I log out or shut down.

So, I'm looking for a way to have a script (or, ideally, list of them) automatically triggered when I log out. The log out would wait for the scripts to finish (just like how the logout waits for you to click Save if an app requests it).

Is there a way to automatically trigger (a) script(s) when I log out of Mac OS X?

Answer 1

Login and logout hooks have been deprecated since 10.4, but they still work on Lion and Mountain Lion. OS X waits until the programs have terminated before logging out, so they can make logging out take longer.

Save a script like this as ~/Desktop/test and make it executable with chmod +x ~/Desktop/test:

#!/bin/bash

say {a..z}

Then add a LogoutHook key to /var/root/Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist with sudo defaults write com.apple.loginwindow LogoutHook ~/Desktop/test. Running programs directly or leaving out sudo don't seem to work.

Using launchd, you could keep a program running on the background and trap the EXIT signal. But it only seems to work when logging out to the login window, and not when shutting down or restarting.

~/Library/LaunchAgents/test.plist:

<?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>test</string>
    <key>Program</key>
    <string>/Users/username/Desktop/test</string> <!-- ~/ doesn't work -->
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

Save this as ~/Desktop/test and make it exectuable with chmod +x:

#!/bin/bash

trap 'say {a..z}; exit' EXIT
while :; do sleep 1; done

The agent can be loaded with launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/test.plist or by logging out and back in once.

Answer 2

Script Timer is a good choice for this. It can run at logout, login, and much more. I'd go with this for a simple and easy to use solution. It has a simple GUI:

There are two things you need to note about Script Timer. One, it is not free. It costs $12, but I personally think it's worth it. Two, it isn't fully compatible with Lion, but they have promised a free update as soon as they've made it compatible.