Talk:Daemon (computing)

Acronym legend?

The acronym expansion appears to be an urban legend. This query:

The first daemon (an abbreviation for Disk And Executive MONitor) was a program that automatically made tape backups of the file system. Does this sound about right? Any corrections or additions? Thank you for your time!

to Fernando J. Corbato, head of the CTSS project where the word entered the computer lexicon, prompted the following reply:

Your explanation of the origin of the word daemon is correct in that my group began using the term around that time frame. However the acronym explanation is a new one on me.

The page (it's in the article) which has this also notes that:

Professor Jerome H. Saltzer, who also worked on Project MAC, confirms the Maxwell's demon explanation.

So I'd say this one is pretty definitively "busted"! Noel (talk) 17:19, 18 Nov 2004 (UTC)

How is it busted? It would only be busted if Corbato had provided the actual etymology; instead it only remains unproven. --148.84.19.92

I found the article, and Corbato also says it's from Maxwell. See [1]. Beinsane 21:43, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Examples

It will be of a great help if someone points to HOW to build the "daemon" applictaions here, with elementary examples.

Under any Unix or GNU system, just call the daemon(3) function.

Teddy 80087 07:17, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)

phantom

who the heck calls a daemon a phantom? --Eean 01:15, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC)

ditto --148.84.19.92

Popular type of daemons

• Web server
• FTP server
• IRC server
• Email server (POP3 and IMAP4)

"Services"

I'm confused by the following (from paragraph six)...

"On Microsoft Windows systems, programs called "services" perform the functions of daemons, ..." "There are "services" as well, but these are completely different in concept."

Was the second "services" referencing something on the Mac?

In Windows programs running in the background (ie. similar to daemons under Unix) are called "services".

In Unix, some daemons will provide network-*services*... like provide mail-services (SMTP, POP) or web-services (HTTP) - where "service" refers to the ability to handle some network-protocol (achived by having a daemon understanding the protocol listning on the port that protocl uses).

So in Unix "service" refers to what the program (daemon) provides, while it in Windows (also) refers to the actual program (of course many Windows "services" thus doesn't provide any services (as understood in Unix) at all, as they do other things than understanding network-protocols).

koppe Tuesday 20 March 2007, 16:40 (CET)

There's also a third NeXT/Mac form of services that are a sort of GUI pipe

poor processes

A daemon kills the parent and forces the orphan to become adopted. Sounds like an appropriate name.

Here be dragons

Thought I'd mention FWIW that Harley Hahan (in his modest book entitled Harley Hahn's Student Guide To Unix claims that daemons are actually and originally a subset of "dragons", the difference being that dragons run automatically in the background, waiting for something to happen; daemons act the same, but must be manually invoked/started. --Gwern (contribs) 20:02 8 January 2007 (GMT)

Pronunciation

I stumbled across this article today, and noticed that the common Template:IPA-en pronunciation was not mentioned in the article; it seems 216.12.248.221 is insistent on denying despite all evidence that that pronunciation exists. The fact is, in the context of computer software the pronunciation has drifted such that both Template:IPA-en and Template:IPA-en are acceptable, and arguments from English pronunciations of other Latin-derived words with the ae dipthong or the pronunciation in mythology or other contexts are irrelevant. Since we have a reliable source that clearly states that both pronunciations are acceptable in the context of computer software, removing it cannot be justified unless someone can find sources that specifically state that Template:IPA-en is not actually a common pronunciation in the context of computer software. Mainstream dictionary sources that merely omit the alternate pronunciation do not cut it, and a link to a page that can make any word seem to be pronounced "demon" is just ridiculous. I have edited the article accordingly, and I hope the IP user will discuss the issue rather than revert. Anomie⚔ 17:32, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

According to Garner's Modern American Usage, Third Edition, 2009, p. 220: daemon; demon. Both are pronounced /dee-mən/. The spelling daemon distinguishes the Greek-mythology senses of a supernatural being, indwelling spirit, etc. from the modern sense of devil's helper (demon). E.g.: "The daemon in him played the game just as it wrote the poems." Jeffrey Meyers, "Poets and Tennis -- Drop Shots and Tender Egos," N.Y. Times, 2 June 1985, § 7, at 24. Daemon is also a term of art in the field of information technology, referring to a background process or thread (primarily in UNIX). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.66.47.212 (talk) 15:50, 6 December 2011 (UTC)

Looks like a mainstream dictionary source that merely omits the alternate pronunciation, even though it does mention the computing definition. Anomie⚔ 18:07, 6 December 2011 (UTC)

What I don't understand is why some people insist on putting the Template:IPA-en pronunciation first, which in a dictionary implies it's more common, when it's clearly the less common version. For that matter, I suppose I wonder why this matters at all, given that Wikipedia is not a dictionary. Kerfuffler (talk) 08:08, 4 September 2012 (UTC)

when it's clearly the less common version Anomie⚔ 18:21, 4 September 2012 (UTC)

Anyone wishing to can follow the link to the Jargon File entry for daemon and find it telling us that the originators of the term used long-e and not long-a. As it is now pronounced both ways they should both be included, but as theirs is canonical it should go first. 68.2.82.231 (talk) 20:47, 26 April 2014 (UTC)