"mds" on CPU usage?

[soccersquirt82]

Looking at my CPU using, I have something that reads "mds." It does not take much space to run, usually at about 1%, but I would like to know what it is. I have WebKit Safari, Apple Mail, iTunes, and Quicksilver open. Anybody know what this is?

 

[4np]

4np@mymbp ~ $ ps aux|grep -i mds
root        21   0.0  1,3   240240  26436   ??  Ss    2:21am   2:23.21 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework/Support/mds
4np       1995   0.0  0,0   591508    276 s000  R+   11:42pm   0:00.00 grep --colour=auto -i mds
4np       1357   0.0  0,5   139640  10020   ??  SNs   5:01pm   0:11.74 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework/Versions/A/Support/mdworker MDSImporterWorker com.apple.Spotlight.ImporterWorker.501
4np@mymbp ~ $

Looks like it's some spotlight crawler or something... I assume it keeps the spotlight database up to date?

 

[dragonmantek]

yeah i don't know what those are either, though they've never bothered me at all.

it probably stands for something and is related to the actual OS.

 

[4np]

Found it:

4np@mymbp ~ $ man mds

MDS(8) BSD System Manager's Manual MDS(8)

NAME
mds -- metadata server

SYNOPSIS
mds

DESCRIPTION
mds is the metadata server. It serves all clients of the metadata APIs, including Spotlight.

There are no configurations to mds, and users should not run mds manually.

SEE ALSO
mdfind(1), mdls(1), mdutil(1)

 

[soccersquirt82]

thanks!