The SLM service automates process management.
SLM is started early in the boot sequence to launch complex applications consisting of many processes that must be started in a specific order.
System Launch and Monitor (SLM) is a utility controlled by a configuration file that specifies the processes to run and their properties, especially any interprocess dependencies. For example, suppose a multimedia application needs the services of the audio subsystem and the database server, which in turn needs the services of PPS. When SLM learns of these one-way dependencies when reading the configuration file, the service internally constructs a directed acyclic graph (DAG) representing the workflow of the underlying processes. This DAG is sorted to produce a partial ordering for scheduling the processes so that all control-flow dependencies are respected. In this example, SLM would first check that PPS is running before starting the database server and then check that the database server is up before starting the multimedia app.
For more information about how to use SLM, see slm in the Utilities Reference.