Carl,

R itself is just a single process. However, there are plenty of ways to have 
multiple R processes running on your system.

The "parallel" package provides various ways in which you can start more 
parallel R processes for parallel computing. Those will typically appear 
without a logo.  Even if you didn’t use it directly, some packages you used may 
have done so without telling you. If they don’t clean up after themselves 
properly, that may leave those stray processes around (but typically only until 
you close your R session).

The other way to get processes without a logo is to start them from the command 
line. They are not necessarily related - one way to find they are is to use 
let’s say "ps xl" and look at the parent process ID (PPID) -  if the PPID is 
the same as another R’s PID then the latter is the parent of the former and 
likely spawned it. If not, then it has been started separately.

R itself will start additional R processes in some situations: the most common 
is for package installation since that involves calling R CMD INSTALL which 
means creating yet another R process.

As a side note: if you run R from the console (Terminal) then it will be 
without an icond until you use R graphics (Quartz) at which point R registers 
itself as an application so it can show the Quartz window, thus macOS will then 
show it with an icon (typically of the parent program so, e.g. Terminal).

Cheers,
Simon



> On 28 Nov 2024, at 12:00, Carl Witthoft <c...@witthoft.com> wrote:
> 
> "I Never Looked"  category!  I was checking the Activity Monitor and noticed 
> that, in addition to a process called "R" which displays the R logo , I have 
> six other processes called "R" with just a plain capital "R" .
> These others all have newer PIDs than the "main" R.  One of them appears to 
> be idling with a bit of CPU usage while all others, including the 'main' one, 
> are at zero CPU (I'm using Rgui.app and at the moment not running any 
> command).
> 
> Do these other processes matter? Are they leftovers?
> 
> thanks
> Carl
> -- 
> Carl Witthoft
> personal: c...@witthoft.com
> The Witthoft Group, Consulting
> https://witthoftgroup.weebly.com/
> 
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