MacOS – list of os x processes by name and function

macos

Main machine is os x 10.9.5

Is there a canonical list of all os x processes by name? For instance TransportClient is always at the top of my Activity Monitor – Network list. Would like to find out about basic functionality etc. Also I'm the default tech for a teens' macbook and want to be able to identify rogue processes by name whenever possible. I've already had to remove adware and, despite security lectures, there will be more issues.

Thanks for any info.

Best Answer

There is no canonical list of all macOS processes by name.

Third party developers are free to name their processes without restriction and Apple's background processes are often undocumented.

Manual Pages

For many core macOS processes there are manual pages. You can read these technical manual pages using the included Terminal application and the command line tool man.

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