[X-Unix] TOP and processes

[Eric F Crist]

On Aug 8, 2007, at 2:06 PMAug 8, 2007, David Ledger wrote:

> At 21:48 -0700 6/8/07, Scott Forbes wrote:
>> On Aug 6, 2007, at 9:21 PM, David Gilden wrote:
>>
>>>  I ran 'Top'  and saw processes that I could not identify.
>>>
>>>  Could someone explain what 'aped' and 'ntpd' are for,
>>>  I was thinking that I might have some rouge spy wear or some
>>>  such crap on my system (OSX Tiger 10.4.10)
>>
>> ntpd is the Network Time Protocol (NTP) daemon. Type "man ntpd"  
>> for details. It's harmless as far as I know.
>>
>> aped is Unsanity's Application Enhancer (APE) deamon. Some say  
>> it's not so harmless, so I don't run it.
>
> ntp is certainly harmless. All properly managed Unix server  
> installations run it.
>
> David
>

'All' is a strong word - too strong IMHO.  I actually run ntpdate  
from a cron process nightly, rather than constantly update the  
clock.  I would still consider my systems as properly managed.

However, to the OP, it's certainly and common and OK thing to have  
running.

-----
Eric F Crist
Secure Computing Networks