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. I haven't verified all of this information, so if anything isn't correct, please send an email, with a correction, to OJB@mac.com.
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 Exposé.
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.
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