An icon for "terminal" appeared on my dock, and could not be removed as it was seen by the Mac to be "running". Could not delete the app in finder. I shut down all sharing in preferences, as I did not know what this program was doing. What was it? (It is now gone from the Dock and from Finder.
The Terminal is an important diagnostic tool. It allows you to enter system commands, using a unix shell. It is not necessary to keep it in the Dock, if you do not use it, but you may need it one day, if you are having system trouble. If you really deleted it from the Finder, I'd restore it from the Trash or from your backup. You could have used "Force Quit" quit the running Terminal application.
It is hard to say, why the Terminal has been launched. You may accidentally started it from the Dock, or another application needed it and launched it as an auxilliary tool.
Did you install a new application lately?
The Terminal is an important diagnostic tool. It allows you to enter system commands, using a unix shell. It is not necessary to keep it in the Dock, if you do not use it, but you may need it one day, if you are having system trouble. If you really deleted it from the Finder, I'd restore it from the Trash or from your backup. You could have used "Force Quit" quit the running Terminal application.
It is hard to say, why the Terminal has been launched. You may accidentally started it from the Dock, or another application needed it and launched it as an auxilliary tool.
Did you install a new application lately?
It is possible that Terminal is in your System Preferences -> Users & Groups -> Startup Items, or there is a document in Startup Items that us associated with Terminal, and that is launching Terminal when you boot or login to your account.
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https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1556454?answerId=7363101022#7363101022
Why does "terminal" icon appear on my dock, uninvited?
