List of Unix daemons

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This is a list of daemons that are commonly found on a Unix-like operating system. A common convention is to name a daemon with a d suffix.

NameDescription
init [1] The program which spawns all other processes. As of 2016, for major Linux distributions, it has been replaced by systemd. [2]
biod [3] Works in cooperation with the remote nfsd to handle client NFS requests.
crond [1] Time-based job scheduler, runs jobs in the background.
dhcpd Dynamically configure TCP/IP information for clients.
fingerd Provides a network interface for the finger protocol, as used by the finger command.
ftpd [1] Services FTP requests from a remote system.
httpd Web server daemon.
inetd [4] Listens for network connection requests. If a request is accepted, it can launch a background daemon to handle the request, was known as the super server for this reason. Some systems use the replacement command xinetd .
lpd The line printer daemon that manages printer spooling.
nfsd [3] Processes NFS operation requests from client systems. Historically each nfsd daemon handled one request at a time, so it was normal to start multiple copies.
ntpd Network Time Protocol daemon that manages clock synchronization across the network. xntpd implements the version 3 standard of NTP.
portmap/rpcbindProvides information to allow ONC RPC clients to contact ONC RPC servers
sshdListens for Secure Shell requests from clients.
sendmail SMTP daemon.
swapperCopies process regions to swap space in order to reclaim physical pages of memory for the kernel. Also called sched.
syslogd System logger process that collects various system messages.
syncdPeriodically keeps the file systems synchronized with system memory.
systemd Replacement of init, the Unix program which spawns all other processes.
xfsd Serve X11 fonts to remote clients.
vhandReleases pages of memory for use by other processes. Also known as the "page stealing daemon"
ypbindFind the server for an NIS domain and store the information in a file.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Verma, Archna (2006), Unix and Shell Programming, Laxmi Publications, p. 84, ISBN   81-7008-958-1
  2. ↑ Saunders, Mike (11 November 2015). "Linux 101: Get the most out of systemd". Linux Voice. Archived from the original on 29 May 2016. Retrieved 28 January 2016.
  3. 1 2 Rosen, Kenneth H.; Host, Douglas A.; Klee, Rachel (2006), UNIX: the complete reference, Complete Reference Series (2nd ed.), McGraw-Hill Professional, p. 514, ISBN   0-07-226336-9
  4. ↑ Stevens, W. Richard; Fenner, Bill; Rudoff, Andrew M. (2004), UNIX Network Programming: The sockets networking API, Addison-Wesley professional computing series (3rd ed.), Addison-Wesley Professional, p. 372, ISBN   0-13-141155-1
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