Enterprise Mac Security: Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Chapter 2. Services, Daemons, and Processes

A computer is never entirely at rest unless it's shut down. Even when you move to another room to watch television and your computer's display has gone to sleep, there might be a dozen or more things at work in the background that you can't immediately see happening. The services, daemons, and processes responsible for all of this activity keeps your system running smoothly and able to handle regular chores such as backups, checking mail, and listening for incoming web clients.

This chapter helps you understand how these services, daemons, and processes provide the backbone of your operating system and how they function. By understanding what these essential elements are and how they interoperate, ...