Mac OS X Processes
This is a list of processes which normally run when you are using Mac OS X. This list has been assembled from various sources, and contains entries for all versions up to 10.4, plus a few extras for commmon utilities.
You may not have all of these processes running, and depending on what extra programs and drivers you have installed, you may have more. For example, if you have anti-virus software running there will probably be at least one extra process running to do the checking.
AppleFileServer - This process provides personal file sharing for Mac OS X. It only provides the AFP sharing protocol (file sharing for Macs, smbd provides sharing for Windows) and is only present if file sharing has been turned on.
ATSServer - This is the Apple Type Solution Server. It controls how the fonts are made available to other programs running on the system.
autodiskmount - This looks for new removable disks (Firewire, iPods, etc) and makes them available to the system when they are plugged in.
automount - This process automatically mounts and unmounts NFS (Unix) and AFP (Apple file sharing) file systems as they are accessed and left idle.
configd - Controls how configuration information is collected and stored by the system while it is running.
coreservicesd - Exact use is uncertain, but seems to be related to controlling the clipboard for copying and pasting information between programs.
CrashReporter - Collects and stores information about program crashes.
cron - A standard Unix utility used to run tasks at specific times automatically. Used to perform periodic maintenance on the computer, such as rotating log files, rebuilding index files, etc.
DesktopDB - maintains information about programs are their associated file types.
Dock - This is the Mac OS X Dock, and other GUI functions, such as Expose.
dynamic_pager - Manages swap files for the unix virtual memory system.
Finder - The Finder. Provides the Macintosh Finder and desktop functions.
ftpd - The file transfer protocol daemon (in Unix, a daemon is a background task that runs automatically). Starts up when another computer connects to your machine through FTP.
httpd - The Apache web server daemon. Will be active if web sharing is switched on. Multiple copies may be present if your machine is being accessed as a web server.
init - The Unix process which starts up and manages many other Unix background processes.
inetd - Watches for some Internet activity and starts up processes appropriately. For example, starts the FTP daemon for incoming FTP requests. After Mac OS X 10.2 this function was handled by the more modern xinetd, but the old version will still be running.
ipconfigd - Configures the computer's Internet connection.
KernelEventAgent - Manages and creates various messages sent to the user when certain core events occur, such as running out of disk space on the system volume.
kextd - This daemon manages kernel extensions. Kernel extensions are usually drivers installed for devices such as SCSI cards, USB modems, etc. Also, a large number of kernel extensions come pre-installed with all versions of Mac OS X.
launchd - This is a new daemon (since Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger) to replace the functionality of older Unix daemons such as init and cron. It launches other daemons, runs periodic tasks, etc.
lookupd - Looks up information from directory and information services.
mach_init - Initialises the Mach kernel, which is the most basic part of the Mac OS X system. Then causes all other parts of the system to load.
mDNSResponder - Manages Rendezvous (now known as Bonjour) requests from other devices on the network.
netinfod - Provides NetInfo data from your computer.
nfsiod - Handles requests to NFS (Unix file sharing) services.
nibindd - Manages Netinfo servers.
nmbd - Manages NetBIOS (PC file sharing) over IP requests.
ntpd - Handles network time protocol requests to synchronise the computer's clock with a time service.
pbs - Manages the computer's pasteboard (copy and paste services).
pickup - Postfix local mail pickup (Mac OS X Server 10.3 mail server).
pitond - A daemon which runs the piton protocol to handle backups using Retrospect.
portmap - Assigns RPC services (such as NetInfo and NFS) to network ports.
PrintServiceMonitor - Handles printing services.
proxymap - Postfix lookup table proxy server (Mac OS X Server 10.3 mail server).
rpc.lockd - Handles locks for files in use by NFS.
sambadmind - manages the configuration and starting of the Samba daemons. Samba provides the SMB (Windows) file sharing protocol for Mac OS X.
SecurityServer - manages security services, such as cryptography, certificate services, etc.
slpd - This manages the Service Location Protocol which tells other computers on the network which services are available.
slpdLoad - Starts up the slpd process but normally not visible while the system is running.
smbd - the Samba daemon provides SMB (Windows) file sharing. Only visible when Windows file sharing is switched on.
sshd - Handles secure shell (encrypted remote terminal) sessions. Only present when Remote Login is switched on.
syslogd - System log message handler. Logs system messages.
telnetd - Only available in older versions of Mac OS X. Handles remote login, but through a non-secure system. Replaced by SSH in newer systems.
trivial-rewrite - Postfix address rewriting and resolving daemon (Mac OS X Server 10.3 mail server).
update - Keeps information cached in memory in sync with data on disks to minimise data loss after crashes, etc.
xinetd - Watches for Internet activity and starts up processes appropriately. Replaces the older daemon inetd which had the same function.
You might find this list useful when troubleshooting a computer which has a process hogging CPU time, for example. By checking the function of a process giving problems you might be able to diagnose the cause of the fault. For example, if there are many httpd processes using lots of resources, your machine might be processing excessive web server requests, as a result of many people viewing your web site or through a DoS attack.