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

This issue comes up a lot and unfortunately locate and mdfind both don't show results from the appropriate directories on my system. I put the following function in my .bashrc so I could quickly search the directories where launchctl looks for plist files.

launchctlFind () {
    LaunchctlPATHS=( \
        ~/Library/LaunchAgents \
        /Library/LaunchAgents \
        /Library/LaunchDaemons \
        /System/Library/LaunchAgents \
        /System/Library/LaunchDaemons \
    )

    for curPATH in "${LaunchctlPATHS[@]}"
    do
        grep -r "$curPATH" -e "$1"
    done
    return 0;
}

Note that this only checks in the directories where launchctl looks for files at boot-up and login. It may not find everything because jobs can be manually loaded by the user and/or other processes.

UPDATE: For those running macOS 10.12.6 or higher I would recommend using Joel Bruner's solution below.