What is the etymology of the "Daemon" (daemon) process commonly used on UNIX / Linux?

ByJakob Breivik Grimstveit

Provide a web page as an HTTP server, send e-mail as a mail server, and perform time synchronization on a regular basisprocessIsoperating systemThen.BackgroundIt is called a process. EspeciallyUNIX/LinuxThis process is called "Daemon(Daemon) process, and if you are a person who has operated UNIX / Linux, I think that there is something to see once. Why it came to be called "daemon process", foreign media "The Austin ChronicleWill lead to UNIX development laterMulticsDevelopersFernando J. ColbatoI have asked Mr. "About Daemon's origin", and the contents of the answer are released.

The Origin of the word Daemon
http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Daemon.html

"Daemon" appeared in 1963, it appeared as an abbreviation for "Disk And Exective MONitor". at firstFile systemofMagnetic tapeIt seems that it was used as the name of a program that automatically creates a backup to.

However, this name was the name given after the background process was decided and the actual beginning was studying the operating system etcMAC ProjectIt was the opportunity that it was decided to be used by Mr. Colbato 's team, the founding member of the company.

ByMarcin Wichary

Mr. Colbato originally majored in physics, and the background process was physicistJames Clark MaxwellCreated with imaginationDemonIt is said that what he called nicknamed "Daemon" (daemon) began.

"Maxwell's Devil" is a thinking experiment conducted by Mr. Maxwell around 1867, joining containers divided into half of A and B and opening a hole through which molecules can pass in the middle. The doors are attached to the holes and the doors are managed by the devil. When the fast moving molecule approaches the door from B to A, the devil opens the door and allows the molecules to pass through, and the slower moving molecules are passed from A When approaching the door toward B, we shall open the door. By doing so, the temperature will rise due to fast moving molecules gathering in A, and molecules with slow movement gather in B and decrease in temperature just by leaving it alone. In this thought experiment,Second law of thermodynamicsIt is also known that it took more than a century to solve it, since it created contradictory results at that time and it took a lot of debate at the time.

Bymarkma723

The movement itself of the background process "move quietly and work always" closely resembles Maxwell's devil movement, which has triggered to call it "Daemon" as a trigger . There is no mention of "the difference in the spelling of daemons" between the background process "Daemon" (Daemon) and "Maxwell's demon" (Maxwell's demon).