Who’s this Locum? And why is he hogging my CPU?

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.

Question 3: How do I solve this?

Grasshoper, Number One – Make sure you did not make a mistake, ensure that you are deleting what you intended to.  Number Two, just be patient.  Locum will stop hogging your CPU once the emptying of the Trash is done.

Question 4: What the ‘eck is Locum?

Ah, Grasshoper..  That is a question from the far reaches of time.  From our friends at Wikipedia…
Locum, short for the Latin phrase locum tenens (lit. “place-holder,” akin to lieutenant), is a person who temporarily fulfills the duties of another. For example, a Locum doctor is a doctor who works in the place of the regular doctor when that doctor is absent. These professionals are still governed by their respective regulatory bodies, despite the transient nature of their positions.

Question 5: But I’ve heard of Locum in regards to Pages?

Ah, Yes.  You are confused Grasshoper…  You mean Lorem Ipsum, or “Greek Text”.  It can be confused with Locum, because it is used as Placeholder Text.
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.