How do I find the root cause of launchd crashing? UPDATED:  Added crash log.  It's not clear (to me) why launchd is dying:

Anonymous UUID:       B3C59CC3-5B1B-3BDD-F35F-BB6973D6679B

Thu Jul 30 07:55:30 2015

*** Panic Report ***
panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff800afc1eae): "launchd died\nState at Last Exception:\n\n"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-2782.30.5/bsd/kern/kern_exit.c:363

uuid info:
 0x7fff6fae1000 uuid = &lt;72a99d0f-0b56-3938-abc5-67a0f33757c4&gt;
 0x104496000    uuid = &lt;099ddb51-875f-39f0-a880-93b7128e4687&gt;
 0x1044ea000    uuid = &lt;4396b358-725e-3ec0-bcbb-e4bf75fe1fb0&gt;

RAX: 0x0000000002000001, RBX: 0x0000000000000006, RCX: 0x00000001056800e8, RDX: 0x0000000000000000
RSP: 0x00000001056800e8, RBP: 0x0000000105680190, RSI: 0x000000010567ff40, RDI: 0x0000000000000001
R8:  0x0000000000000000, R9:  0x00000001044d59f0, R10: 0x00007fff90d99b02, R11: 0x0000000000000206
R12: 0x0000000000000000, R13: 0x00007fff8ced77e0, R14: 0x00000001056805d0, R15: 0x0000000105680790
RFL: 0x0000000000000206, RIP: 0x00007fff90d9795a, CS:  0x0000000000000007, SS:  0x0000000000000023

Thread  0xffffff8028daf5c0
    0x00007fff8fa33f4b
    0x00007fff8fa34068
    0x00007fff8fa2d554
    0x00007fff8ce86a6c
    0x00000001044c48f7
    0x00007fff89b35c13
    0x00007fff89b3888f
    0x00007fff89b46fe4
    0x00007fff94fdc637
    0x00007fff94fda40d
    0x0000000000000000

Thread  0xffffff8028dae2e0
    0x00007fff89b38a6a
    0x0000000000000000

Thread  0xffffff8028dd2e28
    0x00000001044adc81
    0x00007fff89b35c13
    0x00007fff89b39365
    0x00007fff89b3aecc
    0x00007fff89b386b7
    0x00007fff89b46fe4
    0x00007fff94fdc637
    0x00007fff94fda40d
    0x0000000000000000

Thread  0xffffff8029033e28
    0x00007fff89b463ad
    0x0000000000000000

Thread  0xffffff8029f794b8
    0x00007fff89b4087e
    0x00007fff89b3962b
    0x00007fff89b39154
    0x00007fff89b3aecc
    0x00007fff89b386b7
    0x00007fff89b38453
    0x00007fff94fdc268
    0x00007fff94fdc1e5
    0x00007fff94fda41d
    0x0000000000000000

Thread  0xffffff80307a8e28
    0x00007fff86e95f1a
    0x0000000000000000
    0x00007fff6faed455
    0x00007fff919367b5
    0x00007fff8fa027e8
    0x00007fff8ced77e0
    0x00007fff8ced9ddf
    0x00007fff89b35c13
    0x00007fff89b36e5e
    0x00007fff8ced80a7
    0x00000001044c1383
    0x00007fff89b35c13
    0x00007fff89b39365
    0x00007fff89b3aecc
    0x00007fff89b39154
    0x00007fff89b3aecc
    0x00007fff89b386b7
    0x00007fff89b46fe4
    0x00007fff94fdc637
    0x00007fff94fda40d
    0x0000000000000000

Thread  0xffffff802ba6c2e0
    0x00007fff94fda40d
    0x0000000000000000

Thread  0xffffff802eb442e0
    0x00007fff94fda40d
    0x0000000000000000

Thread  0xffffff802ef214b8
    0x00007fff94fda40d
    0x0000000000000000

Thread  0xffffff802ad69798
    0x00007fff94fda40d
    0x0000000000000000

Mac OS version: 14E46
Kernel version: Darwin Kernel Version 14.4.0: Thu May 28 11:35:04 PDT 2015; root:xnu-2782.30.5~1/RELEASE_X86_64
Kernel UUID: E3C26B2F-8B97-3F1D-B193-690F7E34F830
System model name: Macmini6,2 (Mac-F65AE981FFA204ED)


I've got Mavericks running on a headless Mac Mini that I remote into via ARD.  It does not have an monitor attached.  At seemingly random intervals, I will no longer be able to connect via ARD (I can't ping or ssh either) and after rebooting and searching the logs and crash reports I see that launchd died.  Sometimes it can be several times per week.  Sometimes it won't happen for months.

I've cleared out my /Library/StartupItems, /Library/LaunchDaemons, /Library/LaunchAgents, and ~/Library/LaunchAgents directories disabling the items w/ launchctl unload -w but every so often, it will still happen.  Oracle's Java updater was one, nasty culprit and removing/disabling that one made the system stable for a long time but now it's happening again and driving me nuts.

Anyone have any other clues as to what might be going on or what else I might look at?
Start by increasing the log level of launchd. Maybe the logs can tell you more about what happens right before launchd crashes.

sudo launchctl log level info


The available log levels are: debug, info, notice, warning, error, critical, alert and emergency. I believe the default level is error.