Johnny Matthews | Stop Multipass VMs on Host-Machine Boot

Create the script

First, create a location to save this script:

mkdir -p ~/Scripts

Create a file called stop_multipass_vms.sh and enter the following lines of code:

#!/bin/bash

# Description: Stop all running Multipass VMs on user login.
# Author: https://github.com/johnnymatthews

# Setup logging
# -------------
LOGFILE="${HOME}/Library/Logs/multipass_vm_stop.log"

# Function to log messages.
log_message() {
  echo "$(date): $1" >> "$LOGFILE"
}

# Create log directory if it doesn't exist.
mkdir -p "$(dirname "$LOGFILE")"

# Set restrictive permissions on the log file.
chmod 600 $LOGFILE

log_message "Script started..."
# -------------



# Verify script matches existing hash.
# ------------------------------------
if ! echo "$(cat ~/Scripts/stop_multipass_vms.checksum)" | shasum -a 256 -c - >/dev/null 2>&1; then
log_message "Script integrity check failed!"
exit 1
fi
# ------------------------------------


# Continue with script.
# ---------------------
# Give the system a moment to fully initialize.
sleep 3

# Check for common Multipass installation locations.
MULTIPASS_PATHS=(
    "/usr/local/bin/multipass"
    "/opt/homebrew/bin/multipass"
    "/usr/bin/multipass"
    "${HOME}/.local/bin/multipass"
    )

MULTIPASS_CMD=""
for path in "${MULTIPASS_PATHS[@]}"; do
if [ -x "$path" ]; then
MULTIPASS_CMD="$path"
break
fi
done

# If multipass wasn't found in the common locations, try using PATH.
if [ -z "$MULTIPASS_CMD" ]; then
if command -v multipass &> /dev/null; then
MULTIPASS_CMD="multipass"
else
log_message "Multipass not found, exiting."
exit 0
fi
fi

log_message "Using Multipass at: $MULTIPASS_CMD"
log_message "Stopping all VMs..."

# Stop all the VMs within Multipass.
$MULTIPASS_CMD stop --all
# ---------------------



# Finish script.
# --------------
log_message "Done!"
exit 0
# --------------

Make the script executable:

chmod +x ~/Scripts/stop_multipass_vms.sh

2. Create the LaunchAgent config

In the ~/Library/LaunchAgents directory, create a file called com.user.multipass.stop.plist with the following content:

<?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.user.multipass.stop</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/bin/bash</string>
        <string>/Users/johnny/Scripts/stop_multipass_vms.sh</string>
    </array>
    <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
    <dict>
        <key>PATH</key>
        <string>/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/opt/homebrew/bin</string>
    </dict>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/multipass.stop.err</string>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/multipass.stop.out</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Double-check that line 10 contains the full path to your script:

[...]
<string>/Users/johnny/Scripts/stop_multipass_vms.sh</string>
[...]

Load the LaunchAgent

Load the LaunchAgent to activate it:

launchctl load ~/Scripts/com.user.multipass.stop.plist

There is no output from this command.

Testing the Script

To test the script without restarting:

bash ~/Scripts/stop_multipass_vms.sh

This command will only output something when it errors.

You can check the log file to see what happened:

cat ~/Library/Logs/multipass_vm_stop.log

Wed 30 Apr 2025 16:00:45 ADT: Script started...
Wed 30 Apr 2025 16:00:48 ADT: Using Multipass at: /usr/local/bin/multipass
Wed 30 Apr 2025 16:00:48 ADT: Stopping all VMs...
Wed 30 Apr 2025 16:00:49 ADT: Done!

How It Works

The script runs when log into your user account.
The script checks if Multipass is installed.
If Multipass is available, is shutdown all VMs.

Troubleshooting

If the script doesn’t run on boot, check the error logs:

cat /tmp/multipass.stop.err
cat /tmp/multipass.stop.out

You can manually unload and reload the LaunchAgent if needed:

launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.user.multipass.stop.plist
launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.user.multipass.stop.plist

Uninstallation

If you decide you no longer want this script:

launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.user.multipass.stop.plist
rm ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.user.multipass.stop.plist
rm ~/Scripts/stop_multipass_vms.sh