Jump to content

Talk:Daemon (computing)

Page contents not supported in other languages.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Guy Harris (talk | contribs) at 18:30, 20 October 2015 (→"Services": Yup.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
WikiProject iconSoftware: Computing Start‑class
WikiProject iconThis article is within the scope of WikiProject Software, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of software on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SoftwareWikipedia:WikiProject SoftwareTemplate:WikiProject Softwaresoftware
StartThis article has been rated as Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
???This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.
Taskforce icon
This article is supported by WikiProject 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. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.64.34.252 (talk • contribs) 8:20, 15 April 2004‎

Under any Unix or GNU system, just call the daemon(3) function.
Teddy 80087 07:17, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)
WP:NOTHOWTO. Guy Harris (talk) 14:57, 20 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

phantom

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

ditto --148.84.19.92
It was a name used at SAIL for non-invoked daemons. At MIT, the same use to be called a dragon. — al-Shimoni (talk) 05:46, 20 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

"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? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.24.201.155 (talk • contribs) 14:25, 6 April 2006‎

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 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.125.110.223 (talk • contribs) 13:07, 18 December 2007‎)
...which are what's mentioned in passing in the "Implementation in Mac OS" section, with a link to Services menu. That has nothing to do with services in the daemon sense (which, as that section notes, are provided by things called daemons in OS X, OS X being a Unix system). Guy Harris (talk) 14:46, 20 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
And, indeed, the full quote to which the original comment referred was

On the original Mac OS similar systems were known as extensions. Mac OS X, being a unix-like system, has daemons. There are "services" as well, but these are completely different in concept.

so the second "services" was, in fact, referring to the NeXT/OS X "Services menu" services. Guy Harris (talk) 18:29, 20 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

poor processes

A daemon kills the parent and forces the orphan to become adopted. Sounds like an appropriate name. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.167.246.211 (talk • contribs) 23:24, 28 July 2006‎

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)

Unix-like systems' daemons are generally either started by a script (rather than "manually" in the sense of a human explicitly starting them) or are launched on demand by inetd/xinetd, launchd, systemd, etc. when another process or a network client first requests a service from them. Guy Harris (talk) 14:55, 20 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Daemon_(computing)&oldid=686692898"