[prou-ler] 
| 1. | a person or animal that prowls. |
| 2. | a person who goes stealthily about with some unlawful intention, as to commit a burglary or theft. |
| prowl (proul) v. prowled, prowl·ing, prowls v. tr. To roam through stealthily, as in search of prey or plunder: prowled the alleys of the city after dark. v. intr. To rove furtively or with predatory intent: cats prowling through the neighborhood. n. The act or an instance of prowling. [Middle English prollen, to move about.] prowl'er n. |
prowler
(Unix) A daemon that is run periodically (typically once a week) to seek out and erase core files, truncate administrative logfiles, nuke "lost+found" directories, and otherwise clean up the cruft that tends to pile up in the corners of a file system.
See also GFR, reaper, skulker.
(1995-02-14)
lər