Depending on your system and applications, some of the listed processes may or may not show up.
Some of the listed processes have been discontinued as of Mac OSX 10.4 or earlier.
Last updated 1/7/2007
For a full technical listing check Apple's Developer Connection
ATSServer
Apple Type Solution Server
Apple font management
Adobe LM Service
Adobe License Management Service
This is Adobe's license management service, It's used to make sure you have a valid serial number
and are not using a pirated copy of their software. This process can be killed,
but it will relaunch when you use one of their products.
Apple Events
Apple Events
Provides GUI Scripting for AppleScript.
AppleFileServer
Apple File Protocol server
Shares your personal files, only present if you have enabled 'Personal File Sharing'. To enable/disable; Launch System Preferences. Select Sharing. Select the Services tab. Select Personal File Sharing and check/uncheck the box.
AppleSpell
Apple Spell
Provides spelling services throughout the system.
automount
Automatic Mount/Unmount
Automatically Mounts/Unmounts Network Filesystems.
bash
Born Again Shell
GNU's bash is a Command Line Interface (CLI) shell / interface. The application Terminal
in Utilities is an example of a CLI shell that uses bash.
blued
Bluetooth daemon
Responsible for bluetooth communication.
check_afp
AFP Client Session Monitor
Monitors AFP (Apple Filing Protocol) connections.
configd
System Configuration daemon
Provides notifications to applications about system configuration changes.
coreaudiod
CoreAudio daemon
Introduced with OSX version 10.4. Used for CoreAudio Related Purposes.
coreservicesd
Core Services Daemon
Security Server.
crashreporterd
Crash Detection and Panic Logging daemon
Responsible for crash detection. Listens for exceptions and launches Crash Reporter
to investigate and report the crash to the user.
cron
Crontab daemon
Responsible to execute scheduled commands. Looks through the crontab files and follows scheduled instructions.
Cron wakes up every minute, to examine all stored crontab files,
checking if something needs to be run in the current minute.
cupsd
Common Unix Printing System daemon
Implements an additional printing system based on the Internet Printing (IP) Protocol.
curl
Client-side URL Transfers
Used to transfer data from and to a server. Supports the following protocols:
HTTP, FTP, GOPHER, DICT, TELNET, LDAP & FILE. Designed to operate autonomously.
DirectoyService
DirectoryService daemon
Part of the Open Directory technology, DirectoryService gathers directory access information
which includes permissions for directories and mounted disks and provides it to whatever program requested it.
diskarbitrationd
Disk Arbitration daemon
Notifies the system about the appearance and disappearance of disks and filesystems,
also manages the mounting of disks & filesystems and arbitrates claiming of disks.
distnoted
Distributed Notifications daemon
Provides distributed notifications services.
dynamic_pager
Dynamic pager external storage manager
Manages a pool of swap files which is used by the system to support demand paging (virtual memory).
Dynamic pager adds swap files as system load increases, and deletes files when the resources are no longer needed.
Executor
Executor
Proprietary process by Prosoft Data Backup. You will only have this in your system if you have installed
Prosoft's Data Backup program. Very difficult to get rid of, keeps showing up every time you use Data Backup; even if there isn't anything scheduled.
fsck_hfs
HFS File System Consistency Check
The fsck_hfs utility verifies and repairs standard HFS and HFS+ file systems.
ftpd
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) daemon
FTP is an internet protocol for transfering files. ftpd listens to the specified port (usually 21) for connection requests, and processes authentication and file transfers.
grep
Global Regular Expression Print
Searches an input file for lines containing a match to the given regular expression (regexp) pattern.
groff
Groff document formatting system
Groff (GNU troff) software is a Command Line Interface (CLI) typesetting package which reads plain text mixed with
formatting commands and produces formatted output.
grotty
Groff Teletypewriter driver
Grotty translates the output of GNU troff into a form suitable for typewriter-like devices.
hdid
HDI Driver
Responsible for disk image loading and for compressed disk image decompression.
httpd
Apache HyperText Transfer protocol (HTTP) server daemon
The Apache HTTP Server is an open-source HTTP server which serves pages from your computer to the public.
The default server folder is located in /Library/WebServer/Documents.
Usually runing only if you have 'Personal Web Sharing' slected in 'System Preferences'.
iCalAlarmScheduler
iCal Alarm Scheduler
Alerts you about upcoming appointments.
Image Capture Extension
Image Capture Extension
Works with the Image Capture application, receives events from external peripherals used by Image Capture.
iTunes Helper
iTunes Helper
init
Process control initialization
Part of the boot process. Reads the initialization information file (ttys) and executes the commands.
Usually executes the login utility.
ioupsd
Input/output UPS daemon
If you have an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) connected to your computer (usually through USB),
this process will monitor the UPS status. In the event of a power failure, ioupsd will follow the precedures
specified in the 'Energy Saver' preferences panel.
ipconfigd
IP Configuration daemon
Retrieve configuration and sets IP network parameters automatically.
ipfwloggerd
IP Firewall Logger deamon
Logs connection attempts when a firewall is active.
kernel_task
Kernel Task
Handles system kernel tasks.
KernelEventAgent
Kernel Event Agent
Disk & server events notifications. Notifies users about file and disk problems.
kextd
Kernel Extension daemon
A daemon process that handles requests for on demand loading & unloading system extensions.
LaunchCFMApp
Launch CFM Application
Runs CFM (carbon) Applications
launchd
Launch daemon
Manages and launches deamons. launchd is the first process called by the system during startup, once running launchd looks through certain system folders for daemons to launch.
less
Less
Less alowes binary files to be read backwards.
login
Login
The login process logs in users into the computer.
loginwindow
Login
A program that displays the Login window after the system starts up, and allowes you to enter a username and password.
lookupd
Lookup daemon
The lookup daemon is a process that finds information like usernames, computer names, printers and IP addresses and provides the results to programs that requested them.
mDNSResponder
Multicast DNS Responder daemon
Provides network service announcement service.
mach_init
Mach Initializer
Mach kernel bootstrap (starts the system).
man
Manual
Displays and formats online UNIX manual pages.
mdimport
Metadata importer
Imports file hierarchies to spotlight metadata server (the Spotlight indexing engine).
mds
Metadata server
Metadata indexing engine for Spotlight.
mdsync
Metadata synchronizer
Metadata synchronizing for Spotlight.
memberd
Membership resolution daemon
Used by the system to resolves group membership permission conflicts.
netinfod
NetInfo daemon
Domain information server.
nfsiod
NFS asynchronous I/O server
Enables NFS (Network File System) asynchronous Input/Output data transfer (concurrent data streams), and improves disk performance.
notifyd
Notification server
Mac OS X notification system.
ntpd
Network time protocol daemon
An operating system daemon which automatically synchronizes and maintains the system time through internet standard time servers. ntpd usually checks for the correct time every 1000 seconds, if the configuration file is missing; ntpd will poll the time server every 64 seconds, until it can determine how accurate the built-in time keeping chip is and reduce the checking frequency to a level where the timescale is effectively continuous.
pcscd
PC/SC Smartcard daemon
A daemon that coordinates communications with smartcard readers. PC/SC Smartcard daemon will load the correct driver for different types of card readers allowing applications to communicate with smartcards without knowing specific technical details of the card reader chipset.
pbs
Pasteboard server
Cocoa frameworks helper & pasteboard server.
pitond
Piton daemon
Proprietary multicast daemon. Used by
EMC Insignia's Retrospect backup software to find local backup client.
pmTool
Process Monitor Tool
Invoked by the Activity Monitor. Polls the system and collects detailed process information, which is usually displayed in 'Activity Monitor'.
portmap
Port Mapper
Converts RPC program numbers to DARPA protocol numbers. RPC (Remote Precedure Call) is a protocol that allows a program to execute code on another computer.
pppd
PPP (Point-to-point) daemon
A protocol used for establishing internet connections over dialup, DSL and other types of links. Some of the PPP daemon responsibilities include, IP negotiation, authentication and security.
qmasterd
Qmaster daemon
Provides automatic load distribution across processors for CPU intensive projects.
RetroRun & RetroRunSL
RetroRun
Proprietary process by
EMC Insignia's Retrospect backup software
rpc.lockd
Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locking daemon
Locks files or records on a network. Monitors files & records on a network, if a user opens a file rpc.lockd locks the file for other users.
securityd
Security daemon
Maintains security & cryptographic operations and control access to keychain items. securityd was first introduced in Mac OS X version 10.0 (Cheetah) as the "Security Server" and was renamed in 10.4 (Panther) to securityd.
sh
Shell
See bash.
slpd
SLP (Service Location protocol) daemon
Announces network services.
sshd
OpenSSH (Secure Shell) daemon
Listens for incoming ssh (secure shell) connections and provides encrypted communications over an insecure network.
syslogd
System Log utility
Processes & controls the flow of log messages from client processes.
SystemUIServer
System User Interface Server
Maintains the Menu Items on the right side of the menubar, like Date & Time, Language & other custom menus.
tbl
Table
Formats tables for the UNIX troff formatting system.
troff
Troff
Troff is a UNIX text processing program.
TWAINBridge
TWAIN Bridge
TWAIN is a standard for acquiring images from image scanners. TWAINBridge is a driver which connects
TWAIN compatible devices to applications. TWAIN is maintained by The
TWAIN Working Group.
update
Update
Flushes (writes) filesystem caches to the disk. Update helps protect the integrity of disk volumes by flushing volatile cached filesystem data to disk at thirty second intervals.
WindowServer
Window Server
Manages Application Windows.
xinetd
Extended Internet Service daemon
Starts programs that provide Internet services. Instead of having services like FTP, HTTP and telnet started at system boot time, and stay dormant until a connection request comes in, only xinetd is started and listens on all ports for services listed in the configuration file. When a request arrives, xinetd starts the appropriate service.
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