What is a Daemon in unix?

Question

Hello
What is a Daemon in unix?
please reply me. i am waiting for your reply.
Thanx

Answer 1

A daemon is a process that detaches itself from the terminal and runs, disconnected, in the background, waiting for requests and responding to them. It can also be defined as the background process that does not belong to a terminal session. Many system functions are commonly performed by daemons, including the sendmail daemon, which handles mail, and the NNTP daemon, which handles USENET news. Many other daemons may exist. Some of the most common daemons are:
init: Takes over the basic running of the system when the kernel has finished the boot process.
inetd: Responsible for starting network services that do not have their own stand-alone daemons. For example, inetd usually takes care of incoming rlogin, telnet, and ftp connections.
cron: Responsible for running repetitive tasks on a regular schedule.

Answer 2

A daemon is a program which runs in the background.
Daemon processes often provide network services, such as   email and file serving.Many   Unix daemons have names which end in a 'd', such as "httpd", "bind" and "ftpd".The opposite of a daemon is a program which runs in the foreground.A Unix daemon is similar to a "service" under Microsoft Windows.