Risk of Daemons Increases Towards UNIX-Based Computer Systems: Here's What to Expect

Urian B., Tech Times 23 April 2023, 11:04 pm

It's essential to maintain the perfect performance of a Mac and to do that, users have to make sure all of the daemons and agents running on it are well-refined and running smoothly. The Operating System runs various hidden background processes, like daemons and agents, to ensure that tasks get done.

Effects of Poorly Written Daemons and Agents on a Mac's Performance

According to the story by Apple Insider, if these processes are inefficient and poorly written, they can slow down a user's Mac.

What are daemons and agents? Daemons are faceless background tasks that continuously perform some operation, such as launched for launching other processes, accounts for managing user accounts, and cloud for iCloud services.

Understanding the Role of LaunchDaemons and LaunchAgents on a Mac

Agents are background apps that can interact with foreground applications and occasionally present small user interfaces, such as security, which asks for an admin password when needed.

These processes come in two categories, LaunchDaemons, which live in the /Library folder, and LaunchAgents, which also live in the user library folder. Apple Insider encourages users to read Mac Daemonology on Amazon to learn more.

Typing 'top' in Terminal will show users all the processes running on their Mac, including daemons and agents, or opening Activity Monitor located in the Utilities folder will provide insight into which processes use the most system resources.

Identifying and Managing Third-Party Daemons and Agents

Third-party daemons and agents can also be found, and if they are inefficiently written, they can drag the user's Mac's performance down. To boost performance and fix the issue, it is important to identify which daemons and agents are using too many resources and move their associated .plist files to prevent them from launching.

If necessary, users can remove the files and reinstall the software. Users should also keep track of CPU usage in Activity Monitor and keep an eye on the '% CPU' and 'Threads' columns to analyze which processes are putting the heaviest load on their Mac's CPUs.

By becoming familiar with the processes running on a user's Mac, they can ensure they are all running smoothly and efficiently, improving the overall performance of their Mac devices. Users can learn more about Apple's XPC services on the official Apple developer webpage.

Reinstate Normal Performance on a Slow Mac by Moving .plist Files

If users find that daemons and agents are slowing their Mac, users can make a few tweaks to regain normal performance. If certain agents are poorly written and are causing users' Mac to slow down, they can easily move the .plist files aside and restart to prevent them from launching again.

In cases where an application seems to be perpetually running, try moving the .plist file out of the LaunchAgents and LaunchDaemons folders and then restart the Mac. Doing so will completely disable the offending process and require users to reinstall the program if they wish to use it later.