12-19-2006, 02:37 AM

I was wondering if someone could help me out with this problem.

Is it possible to use folder actions to run an automator script BEFORE a user logs in. Right now I have it set up where when a certain file is inserted into a certain folder, folder actions activates a script I made with automator and sends an email out with Mail app.

However this only works when I am logged in. It also works when I am in the fast user switching window (which means I am still logged in technically). Is their any way I can have this work, for instance, when I start my computer, but have no yet logged in? I other words could the computer just use folder actions to check that certain folder and then run the script and send out the email before I even log into OS X.

12-19-2006, 08:04 AM

In theory it is possible to run a script during the startup though it could be daunting depending on your programming skills. In OS X, all the system startup scripts are stored in /Library/StartupItems as self containing *.plist files. You can add your own and let it run as the root user.

The basic format of a StartupItem is fairly simple. Each item is contained in a folder. Inside that folder are three other items. The first is a shell script that has the same name as the folder. The second item is the XML property list called StartupParameters.plist—this tells the operating system what dependencies the item has, and a suggestion as to when it should run in the startup order among other things. The third item is a folder called Resources that contains any log messages or console messages that your script uses localized into different languages. You can also put any ancillary scripts and other resources your StartupItem might need into here.