In OS X 10.7 the launchd process is the process that kicks off all processes and launches launch daemons and launch agents. This effectively is what cron and cronjobs are to the general Unix/Linux environment

Launch Daemons are typically system process whereas Launch Agents are processes that can be run by users.

Launch Daemons are found in 2 spots :

/Library/Launch/Daemons <<–3rd Party Daemons
/System/Library/Launch/Daemons <<–Apple Daemons

 Launch Agents are found in 4 spots:

/System/Library/LaunchAgents <<–Apple supplied agents for all users
/Network/Library/LaunchAgents <<–Network Users via an automount
/Library/LaunchAgents <<–Third party agents for all admins
~/Library/LaunchAgents <<–Third party agents for all users

These files are plain text xml files or  .plist “property list” files and are structured in value pairs, you can edit with a regular text editor or using Apple’s Property List Editor which comes in the Developer Tools: Developer/Application/Utilities, the files also have a reverse URL naming convention ie :

 com.neilgee.mysuperbackup.plist

A native plist looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>com.neilgee.mysuperbackup</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/usr/sbin/ftpcpanel.sh</string>
</array>
<key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
<dict>
<key>Hour</key>
<integer>10</integer>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>17</integer>
</dict>
</dict>
</plist>

And a view via the Property List Editor looks like this:

 

The one that applies to any 3rd Party automation for users is the agents filed in the users folder in:
~/Library/LaunchAgents <<–Third party agents for all users

And a great application for creating Launch Agents graphically is an app called “Lingon” by Peter Borg which allows you to create a new agent, name it, point to the command you want to run, set the frequency interval and set and forget.

So if you already have a script made for backups to download a cPanel backup from a remote host you can set when that script is run and the backup is launched.

In Lingon fill out the steps 1 2 and 3…