Software Daemon
A Software Daemon is a software program that runs in the computer background.
- Example(s):
- Counter-Example(s):
- See: Cron, Computer Multitasking, Operating System, Jargon File, Background (Computer Software), Process (Computing), Secure Shell, Parent Process.
References
2016
- (Wikipedia, 2016) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daemon_(computing) Retrieved:2016-1-13.
- In multitasking computer operating systems, a daemon (or ) is a computer program that runs as a background process, rather than being under the direct control of an interactive user. Traditionally daemon names end with the letter d. For example, syslogd is the daemon that implements the system logging facility, and sshd is a daemon that services incoming SSH connections.
In a Unix environment, the parent process of a daemon is often, but not always, the init process. A daemon is usually either created by a process forking a child process and then immediately exiting, thus causing init to adopt the child process, or by the init process directly launching the daemon. In addition, a daemon launched by forking and exiting typically must perform other operations, such as dissociating the process from any controlling terminal (tty). Such procedures are often implemented in various convenience routines such as daemon(3) in Unix.
Systems often start daemons at boot time and serve the function of responding to network requests, hardware activity, or other programs by performing some task. Daemons can also configure hardware (like udevd on some Linux systems), run scheduled tasks (like cron), and perform a variety of other tasks.
- In multitasking computer operating systems, a daemon (or ) is a computer program that runs as a background process, rather than being under the direct control of an interactive user. Traditionally daemon names end with the letter d. For example, syslogd is the daemon that implements the system logging facility, and sshd is a daemon that services incoming SSH connections.