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LaunchServices

From The Apple Wiki

LaunchServices collection of daemons and frameworks responsible for launching applications on macOS and iOS.

LSApplicationWorkspace API

When installing apps on iOS, it is common to manipulate their LaunchServices registration using the LSApplicationWorkspace API.

launchservicesd Daemon

This daemon is responsible for coordinating application launches. It provides a shm which is manipulated using the LSApplicationWorkspace APIs.[1]

macOS

There is a short man page describing it:

launchservicesd(8)                     System Manager's Manual                     launchservicesd(8)

NAME
     launchservicesd

SYNOPSIS
     launchservicesd [--server]

DESCRIPTION
     launchservicesd is used internally by MacOS X to track and coordinate information about the
     running applications on the system.

FILES
     /System/Library/CoreServices/launchservicesd

SEE ALSO
     lsappinfo(8)

HISTORY
     launchservicesd was introduced in MacOS 10.9.

Darwin                                         04/01/13                                        Darwin

lsd Daemon

lsd, the LaunchServices database daemon, is responsible for keeping track of app registrations and caching them on disk.[2]

macOS

There is a short man page describing it:

lsd(8)                      System Manager's Manual                     lsd(8)

NAME
     lsd

DESCRIPTION
     lsd provides various services for CoreServices frameworks. It is not
     meant to be invoked directly and it must not be terminated.

Darwin                              8/22/12                             Darwin

A copy is run for each user on the system

jjtech             715   0.0  0.1 408286768  12080   ??  S    Tue07PM   0:24.15 /usr/libexec/lsd
root               404   0.0  0.1 408289376  15840   ??  Ss   Tue07PM   0:26.28 /usr/libexec/lsd runAsRoot

Database

lsd creates a giant database of all applications on the system, and uses this database to determine which application to launch when a file is opened or a URL is clicked.