startup routines

[hayne]

The following is a possibly incomplete/out-dated list of the mechanisms that can be used to run software at system startup:

1) The script /etc/rc and the sub-scripts it invokes (especially /etc/rc.local)

2) Launchd (files in /System/Library/LaunchDaemons and /Library/LaunchDaemons)

3) "@reboot" entries in /etc/crontab (and possibly also in per-user crontabs)

4) bundles in /System/Library/SystemConfiguration

5) scripts in /System/Library/StartupItems and /Library/StartupItems

6) kernel extensions in /System/Library/Extensions

7) entries in the file /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SystemLoginItems.plist (an undocumented mechanism)

8) plist files in /etc/mach_init.d or /etc/mach_init_per_user.d
(deprecated and possibly limited to certain "Apple-specific" items in 10.4, but will work generally in 10.3)

9) mount entries in /etc/fstab
(Can be used to mount filesystems which might trigger other software to run.)

See also Apple's developer docs on the system startup:
http://developer.apple.com/documenta...tup/index.html
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By the way, what version of OS X are you running? What model of Mac?