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Unknown Processes

Dark Void

Dark Void

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jun 1, 2011
2,614
479
Hello,

I use a prefpane called GeekTool that allows you to embed information on your desktop, including your processes as they run as well as the percent of the CPU and Memory that they utilize.

Only when I wake my computer from sleep mode, I notice processes called "sh" (multiple of these, it was probably listed about six or seven times amongst my top 35 display) and also a process called "ruby" within my "Processes" shell command. Not recognizing them, I pulled up Activity Monitor with "All Processes" selected and they are not there.

When waking the computer, "ruby" reportedly utilizes 6% of my CPU, which should still be towards the top of the list but it is not there at all, nor in Activity Monitor as stated prior. Neither of these processes are listed within anything that I can monitor processes with and they only seem to be active when my computer is in sleep mode, apparently. I am thinking that this could possibly be because of the script that I am using for the Processes script in GeekTool, but that would be my best guess.

I googled both and only really found information on Ruby, apparently it is something that has to do with programming in Mac OS X. I did not install anything named Ruby, is it a native thing?

Anyone know what these are?

Thank you.
 
Both sh (really bash in disguise) and Ruby are scripting languages. Their names in the process list are not overly helpful in figuring out what they are doing. Rather you have to figure out what script is being run.

The simple way of doing this (assuming they are running as you user) is to open Activity Monitor.app, click on the process to highlight it, and then click on Inspect. Then in the "Open Files and Ports" (only available if your user owns that process) you will get the list of all of the files that that process is using. The script file is most probably going to be one of them.

Note: If you have so set it for the Terminal, each terminal window will have a 'sh' process associated with it.
 
thanks for the reply.

they did not show up in activity monitor, just in the geektool processes script. i am using both bash and ruby scripts in geektool as well, could that explain it? i do not know why they are not in activity monitor though.

in any case i got rid of my processes script as it was pretty whack...it displayed some processes twice, etc.
 
Anyone have any further information on these and/or know why they aren't showing up in Activity Monitor?

Thanks.
 
GGJstudios said:
They should show with "All Processes" selected. I'm not sure why they're not.
Click to expand...

do you know anything about geektool by chance?

i think it's because of geektool, i am using ruby and bash scripts. when i hit "refresh all" in the geektool menu bar icon, it displays bash, ruby, sh, curl, etc amongst my top 30 or so processes....all types of scripts that i am using. they don't show up in activity monitor usually, but i have caught them in there a couple of times just now with it pulled up along side of the embedded processes script, but they are only there for a brief second, not long enough for me to click on them or catch a screenshot.

i THINK it may be the scripts refreshing themselves, which happens out of sleep (like i had initially mentioned) or of course, mentioned above, when i hit "refresh all."

sound reasonable or no?

edit: i think actually this is a successful diagnosis. after letting my computer rest for a min or so, i hit "refresh now" in Geektool and saw a bunch of bash, curl, grep, ruby, sh, etc processes in my activity monitor. they disappear in a couple of seconds because i believe it is solely used to refresh my geektool scripts.
 
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