How to know a specific launchd.plist file location?

Question

Is it possible to know the .plist file location which is loaded into the launchctl command?

The label name is listed with \"launchctl list\" and its contents can be view

Answer 1

Here is the command to list all loaded .plist files and their corresponding files:

find /System/Library/Launch* /Library/Launch* ~/Library/Launch* -name '*.plist' -exec sh -c '/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print Label" {} && echo {}' ';' | grep -wf <(launchctl list | grep -o "\S\+\..*$") -A1 | strings

or another version:

find /System/Library/Launch* /Library/Launch* ~/Library/Launch* -name '*.plist' -exec /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print Label" {} ';' -print | grep -wf <(launchctl list | grep -o "\S\+\..*$") -A1 | strings

Explanation:

• find all .plist files in the following locations: /System/Library/Launch* /Library/Launch* ~/Library/Launch*
• Use PlistBuddy command to print Label of all found .plist files.
• Use -print parameter of find to print the path to that file.
• Fetch another list of all the jobs loaded into launchd and use as pattern file for grep -f.
• Filter both lists and find the common elements and print its label along with its path (-A1).
• Filter via strings to avoid printing binary files.