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0

0

uid 0, see also root

A

Advocate

A Debian member that advocates an application. They should know the applicant fairly well and should be able to give an overview of the applicant's work, interests and plans. Advocates are often the sponsors of an applicant.

Applicant

A person requesting membership in the Debian project; prospective Debian developer.

Application Manager

A Debian member who is assigned to an applicant to collect the information needed by the Debian account managers to decide about an application. One application manager can be assigned to more than one Applicant.

B

bts-link

A system for synchronising bug status in the Debian BTS with upstream bug tracking systems like Bugzilla. See this mail.

C

D

• Debian Account Manager ::A Debian member that was delegated to manage the Debian account creation and removal by the Debian project leader. The DAM has the final decision over an application.

Debian Developer

A Debian Project member, who has gone through the new maintainer process and had their application accepted.

Debian-Installer

Debian Installer is the set of program used to install Debian on your hard disk "The first day". It is not the program you use to install (add|remove) more program (packages) once Debian Installed (see apt).

Debian Member

See Debian Developer.

Debian Project

An organization of free software developers spread around the world with a common goal, to produce a completely free operating system. See the Debian web pages for more information.

D-I

see Debian-Installer

E

F

Front Desk

The front desk members receive the initial applications, advocation messages and final application reports. They are the point of contact if problems with the application arise.

G

H

I

ITA

In documentation, this means that the author intents to adopt a given set of documentation. (see DDP).

ITD (Intend to Document)

a documentation maintainer that is going to start writing a document. The use of the WNPP for avoids people duplicating effort writing the same documentation. (see DDP).

ITP (Intent To Package)

Someone (a DD or Maintainer) intends to package a software

(see WNPP).

ITT (Intend to Translate)

a translator is going to start translating a document. As above, this tries to prevent duplicate efforts (see DDP).

J

K

L

M

Micro Kernel

A Micro Kernel is a minimalistic operating system kernel which provides only the most basic services, which generally include tasks, virtual memory policy, Inter Process Communication and basic hardware drivers. Examples of micro kernels are Mach (and GNUMach, OSKit-Mach) and L4. (sea also Wikipedia Micro_kernel )

Multi Server

Multi server refers to a system which has several servers working together running on a MicroKernel to perform the tasks normally done by a monolithic kernel; this is in contrast to a single server which is akin to a monolithic kernel running on a micro kernel.

N

O

O

A package has been "Orphaned". It needs a new maintainer as soon as possible. If the package has a Priority higher or equal to standard, the severity should be set to important. (see WNPP).

In Documentation : as the package equivalent, this means that the author intents to orphan a given set of documentation. (see DDP).

P

Q

R

root

1. the root user (uid 0), often named Super-User can do anything on a system (equivalent to "Administrator" on some systems). (see Root)

2. the ?root_directory is the top level directory "/".

3. root's directory "/root" is the root user's home directory.

RFA (Request for Adoption)

Due to lack of time, resources, interest or something similar, the current maintainer is asking for someone else to maintain this package. They will maintain it in the meantime, but perhaps not in the best possible way. In short: the package needs a new maintainer. (see WNPP).

RFD (Request for Documentation)

a user that detects that a given document (manual or other) on a given topic is not yet available on the DDP can ask for it using this tag. DDP members will give priority when deciding which documents need to be written to requests on a given document by a number of users. (see DDP).

RFH (Request For Help)

The current maintainer wants to continue to maintain this package, but they need some help to do this, because their time is limited or the package is quite big and needs several maintainers. (see WNPP).

RFP (Request For Package)

Someone has found an interesting piece of software and would like someone else to maintain it for Debian. (see WNPP).

S

Sponsor

A Debian Member who acts as the mentor of an Applicant: They check packages provided by the Applicant and help to find problems and to improve the packaging. When the sponsor is satisfied with the package, they upload it on behalf of the Applicant to the Debian archive. The Applicant is recorded as the maintainer of such a package, despite the fact Applicants aren't allowed to upload packages themselves.

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

Zombie Maintainer

A zombie maintainer is a maintainer who does no work on a package but refuses to orphan it. The package bit-rots away in the clutches of his undead hands as he drifts on the margins of existence. His grumblings are occasionally heard on Debian mailing lists --- just enough to keep himself from being pronounced MIA, which would be grounds for deeming the package orphaned.

Not much is known about these beings; however, experts in paranormal phenomena claim that once a maintainer has become a zombie he cannot let a package go until his work on it is done. However, having lost his spirit, the zombie is incapable of making any progress. The predictable result is that the package becomes a Slum.

What is certain is that there is a subclass of zombies whom we shall call "guardians". A guardian zombie holds on to a package while justifying himself by saying that he is doing Debian the service of protecting his package from damage in the hands of a mortal maintainer. A guardian zombie may go so far as to invite ?NMUs, some of which he will allow to pass without comment, to others of which he will react with howls of protest and mutterings of 'my precious'.

. (dot)

.deb

File-extension used for package of debian-based distribution.

.udeb

File-extension used for package containing #Debian-Installer modules. do not install it in a regular system.