DAEMON

A dormant background process on a Web server  (in a UNIX  environment), waiting to perform tasks. Well-known daemons are the sendmail daemon and the HTTP  daemon.

Disk And Execution MONitor programs that are not initially executed but lie in wait for certain contingencies to occur. Daemons are extremely common in UNIX operating systems.The slightly revised form Demon refers to the program itself whereas Daemon refers to an operating system process. See also HTTPd .

Pronounced demon or damon, a process that runs in the background and performs a specified operation at predefined times or in response to certain events. The term daemon is a UNIX term, though many other operating systems provide support for daemons, though they're sometimes called other names. Windows, for example, refers to daemons and System Agents and services.Typical daemon processes include print spoolers, e-mail handlers, and other programs that perform administrative tasks for the operating system. The term comes from Greek mythology, where daemons were guardian spirits.

A program that runs in the background whenever needed,carring out tasks for the users.They sleep’ until something comes along which needs their help;most commonly found on unix systems.