Mac OS X in a Nutshell

Name

SystemStarter

Synopsis

SystemStarter [options] [action 
                     [service]]

Utility to control the starting, stopping, and restarting of system services. The services that can be affected are described in the /Library/StartupItems and /System/Library/StartupItems/ paths.

The action and service arguments are optional. If no service argument is specified, all startup items will be affected. When a specific startup item is given, that item and all the items that it depends upon, or that are dependent on it, will be affected.

Currently, rc calls SystemStarter at boot time. Since SystemStarter may eventually take over the role of rc, it is advisable to create custom startup items rather than to continue to modify rc.

Options

-g

Graphical startup

-v

Verbose startup

-x

Safe mode startup (a basic startup that only runs Apple items)

-d

Prints debugging output

-D

Prints debugging output and shows dependencies

-q

Quiet mode that silences debugging output

-n

A pretend run mode that doesn’t actually perform actions on any items