Prevent the FitBit daemon from filling your system logs

On the Mac the FitBit daemon logs to the system.log but it can be a bit verbose.

The following change to the FitBit launch daemon should send the output to its own file:

--- com.fitbit.fitbitd.plist.orig 2012-05-19 09:24:54.000000000 +0100
+++ com.fitbit.fitbitd.plist      2012-05-19 09:06:51.000000000 +0100
@@ -44,5 +44,9 @@
     <false/>
     <key>Disabled</key>
     <false/>
+    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
+    <string>/var/log/fitbitd.log</string>
+    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
+    <string>/var/log/fitbitd.log</string>
   </dict>
 </plist>

Don't forget to create the file ahead of time and give it the correct permissions.

$ sudo touch /var/log/fitbitd.log && sudo chown nobody: /var/log/fitbitd.log

Restart fitbitd:

$ cd /Library/LauchDaemons
$ sudo launchctl unload com.fitbit.fitbitd.plist
$ sudo launchctl load com.fitbit.fitbitd.plist

Enabling SNMP in Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)

Under Snow Leopard there is a slight change to the way services are enabled.

-w       Overrides the Disabled key and sets it to false. In previous versions, this
         option would modify the configuration file. Now the state of the Disabled key
         is stored elsewhere on-disk.

So, to enable the SNMP daemon correctly:

$ sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.net-snmp.snmpd.plist

Automatic mounting of SSH filesystems in OS X

Getting your MacFUSE SSH filesystem to mount automatically on login isn't Voodoo, but it is Magick.

Here's how it's done using launchd:

Create a Properties List file under, ~/Library/LaunchAgents:

eg: ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.example.sshfs.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>com.example.sshfs</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
      <string>/opt/local/bin/sshfs</string>
      <string>user@example.com:path/to/share</string>
      <string>/path/to/mountpoint</string>
      <string>-f</string>
      <string>-o</string>
      <string>auto_cache,reconnect,volname=friendly_name</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
  </dict>
</plist>

We can now load this into launchd by running,

$ cd ~/Library/LaunchAgents 
$ launchctl load com.example.sshfs.plist

Your SSH filesystem should now be mounted.

$ mount
    .
    .
    .
user@example.com:path/to/share on /path/to/mountpoint (fusefs, nodev, nosuid, synchronous, mounted by user)