Question: I just did a huge cleanup of my backup drive, and my system is running slow, and I see a process named Locum? What’s locum?
PID COMMAND %CPU TIME #TH #PRTS #MREGS RPRVT RSHRD RSIZE VSIZE
75035 Locum 23.3% 6:12.20 1 30 25 420K+ 300K 1244K+ 19M+
75036 Locum 23.1% 6:22.59 1 30 25 416K 300K 1236K 19M
Question 1: What’s Locum?
Locum is a Private Framework that Apple has created, and is currently located at:
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DesktopServicesPriv.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Locum
This UnixJunkie article, goes into some technical details regarding Locum.
Question 2: Why?
Locum is used to assist in Deleting files & folders that the logged in user would not normally have access to. The finder will allow the user to delete a folder that has a file owned by Root. Normally Unix would not allow a non-root user to remove a folder that contains a file owned by root. The finder allows this, but when being emptied the Locum process has to be used to resolve all of these file permission / ownership issues. Continue reading »