Editing Daemon (computing) (section)

{{Short description|Computer program that runs as a background process}}
{{For-multi|spirit in Classical Greek mythology|Daimon|broader coverage of the topic|Server (computing)}}
{{more footnotes|date=June 2018}}
[[File:Free and open-source-software display servers and UI toolkits.svg|thumb|right|400px|Components of some [[Linux]] [[desktop environment]]s that are daemons include [[D-Bus]], [[NetworkManager]] (here called ''unetwork''), [[PulseAudio]] (''usound''), and [[Avahi (software)|Avahi]].]]

In [[computing]], a '''daemon''' is a [[computer program|program]] that runs as a [[background process]], rather than being under the direct control of an interactive user. Customary convention is to name a daemon process with the letter ''d'' as a suffix to indicate that it's a daemon. For example, {{mono|[[syslogd]]}} is a daemon that implements system logging facility, and {{mono|sshd}} is a daemon that serves incoming [[Secure Shell|SSH]] connections.

Even though the concept can apply to many computing systems, the term ''daemon'' is used almost exclusively in the context of [[Unix]]-based systems. In other contexts, different terms are used for the same concept.

Systems often start daemons at [[booting|boot]] time that will respond to network requests, hardware activity, or other programs by performing some task. Daemons such as [[cron]] may also perform defined tasks at scheduled times.