What Is a Running Process

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∟What Is a Running Process

This section describes running processes, which are sets of computer instructions currently processed by the macOS operating system.

What Is a Running Process? - A running process is a set of instructions currently being processed by the computer system to perform a specific function.

A system process is a running process launched by the operating system to perform specific system function. For example, "logd" is a system process that writes warning and error messages to system log files.

An application process is a running process launched by a user as part of an application. For example, "Safari" is an application process that allows you to browser Websites on the Internet.

A running process consumes system resources in these areas:

CPU - Time spend by the CPU to process instructions of this process.
Memory - Storage space occupied in the RAM by this process.
Disk I/O - Amount of data read from and written to the hard disk by this process.
Network - Amount of data receive from and sent to the Wi-Fi and other network connections by this process.
Energy - Amount of electric power consumed by this process.