Debian_Jargon-160x160.png


Debian Glossary Only.

If you don't find the entry you wanted below, check

Or you can add it yourself. If you can't define it yourself you can put ToDo instead, but always check the sites mentioned above - if it isn't Debian-specific, an existing definition elsewhere is likely to be more helpful.

Jump to : A B C D E F G H I J K L M N P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Symbols : .(dot)

A

Advocate

A Debian member who advocates an application. Advocates 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.

Alioth

Alioth is a collaborative development environment based on the FusionForge software as a service for the Debian project and community.

Alioth (guest) account

People willing to participate in the packaging or development of a software can ask for an Alioth guest account, then ask for commit rights to a given project.

AM

See Application Manager

ANAIS

Short for Architecture Not Allowed In Source; used in bug reports for package removal, usually indicating that the number of architectures for which the package is to be built has been reduced

Applicant

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

Application Manager (AM)

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.

APT

Debian's Advanced Package Tool (or perhaps Advanced Packaging Tool - neither is "official"), a library that handles fetching the list of packages, resolving package dependencies, etc. It then uses dpkg to perform the actual package installation, removal, etc. The package apt provides the commandline tools apt-get and apt-cache, but other APT front-ends exist such as aptitude and synaptic.

Architecture
The type of system a piece of software is built for:

Archive
A set of files:

Area

The term used in Debian Policy for the main, contrib, and non-free divisions of the repositories (also known as components)

B

Backports

Backports are versions of packages from testing and unstable that have been rebuilt to be able to install and run on the stable distribution.

Base system

binary packages with priority required or important; a minimalist set of packages installed before everything else on a new system. Designed to provide just the things you'd be surprised to find missing on a usable UNIX system. Not to be confused with essential, which is much smaller.

BD-Uninstallable

a wanna-build state

Binary
Several potentially confusing (but non-Debian-specific) meanings:

Binary package

An installable .deb file as opposed to the source package it's built from. The idea is that this is the "binary" compiled in the package building process (regardless of whether the output .deb contains a binary executable, documentation, or indeed Linux kernel sourcecode).

BinNMU

a binary-only non-maintainer upload - see binNMU

BoF

Short for Birds of a Feather; a common type of discussion session held at DebConf

BSP

Short for Bug Squashing Party; a get-together of Debian enthusiasts (either virtual or In Real Life) for the purpose of fixing as many bugs as possible.

BTS

Short for Bug Tracking System

BTS-link

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

Building

Build-essential

The only package that's literally essential for a Debian package build is make (because Policy mandates the use of a Makefile), but the "build-essential" toolkit is a convenient short-cut: a standard set of packages defined to be required for all normal Debian packaging work, which can therefore be omitted from lists of build dependencies as obvious, just as essential packages are omitted from install-time dependencies.

C

CDBS

Short for Common Debian Build System (provided by cdbs)

Component

The term used in sources.list(5) for the main, contrib, and non-free archive areas

Conffile

A technical term defined in Policy; a file declared in a package's conffiles file is treated specially by dpkg to ensure that local modifications are not blindly overwritten by a package upgrade or deleted by a remove. Conffiles are (always?) stored in /etc, and are often conventional global configuration files but may also be initscripts, cronjobs, or similar.

Configuration file

Any file affecting the operation of a program, or providing site- or host-specific information, or otherwise customizing a program's behavior. May or may not be system-wide, or in an intelligible line-oriented text format, or marked as a conffile. Personal configuration files are traditionally stored as dotfiles in the home directory, and often have names ending in rc (commonly interpreted as "runtime configuration").

Contrib
Additional, external software, in either of two senses:

Control file

As defined in Debian Policy:

  • The control file included in the debian directory of each source package contains dependency information required to build the package, and has separate stanzas containing further information for each binary-package

  • The control file included in the DEBIAN directory of each binary .deb (formed from the corresponding stanza in the source control file) contains dependency information required to install the package, plus the package description etc.

  • Any "control file"; that is, any file with the same multi-field syntax as the above - for instance, dsc files are also counted as control files.

  • Custom Debian Distributions (CDD)

    The old name for subsets of Debian configured to support a particular target group out-of-the-box. Now known as Debian Pure Blends

    D

    dak

    (Short for Debian Archive Kit) The toolset used to manage the Debian repositories - see DakHowTo

    DAM

    See Debian Account Manager.

    DC

    See Debian Contributor

    DD

    See Debian Developer

    DDP

    Short for the Debian Documentation Project

    DDPO

    The Debian Developer's Packages Overview, which lists the packages maintained by a Debian Developer or Team

    Debconf
    Two things distinguished by capitalization:

    Debian Account

    Typically the login account of a Debian Developer, but sometimes also used to refer to a Debian Maintainer account. See also Alioth account.

    Debian Account Manager (DAM)

    A Debian member who has been delegated by the Debian project leader to manage Debian account creation and removal. The DAM has the final decision over an application.

    Debian Contributor

    a general term for active members of the Debian community, whether or not they have DD status; sometimes used to mean the status of a non-uploading DD (as recognised by general resolution).

    Debian Developer (DD)

    A Debian Project member who has gone through the New Maintainer process and had their application accepted is called a Debian Developer.

    Debian Documentation Project

    A Debian sub-project covering various documentation issues. See http://www.debian.org/doc/ddp

    Debian Installer (D-I)

    Debian Installer is the software used to initially install Debian on your hard disk. This should not be confused with the software used to install extra packages on a running Debian system (see APT).

    Debian Maintainer (DM)

    The status of a person who has passed the Debian Maintainer process. A Debian Maintainer is granted some rights to manage packages, in particular the right to upload packages to the archive. DMs aren't voting members of the Debian Project. See also Debian Developer, Alioth account. Not to be confused with the role of package Maintainer.

    Debian Member

    Full members of the Debian Project are referred to as Debian Developers. (ToDo: link to one coherent central explanation of the distinction between contributors, developers, maintainers, and uploaders, assuming there is one)

    Debian New Maintainer

    The process of becoming an official Debian Developer (DD), or a person going through that process. See also Applicant.

    Debian Policy Manual
    The document that describes what packages should contain, how they should be configured, and generally how packages fit together to create a Debian system.

    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.

    Debian Project Leader (DPL)

    the official representative of the Debian Project to the outside world, with internal managerial and coordinatory duties; elected annually. See http://www.debian.org/devel/leader

    Debian Pure Blends

    A subset of Debian that is configured to support a particular target group out-of-the-box. Debian Pure Blends were formerly known as Custom Debian Distributions (CDD).

    Debian Security Advisory (DSA)

    A warning message sent to the debian-security-announce mailinglist about a security alert for Debian software with available fixes. Not to be confused with the DSA team.

    Debian System Administrators (DSA)

    The Debian System Administrators team, who handle the basic infrastructure of the project. Not to be confused with DSA messages.

    DEHS

    Short for Debian External Health Status (see DEHS).

    DEP

    Short for Debian Enhancement Proposal, an RFC-like mechanism for planning efforts within the Debian Project

    Dep-wait

    (Plus more rarely dep-wait-removed) A wanna-build state

    Dependency package

    An empty binary package that exists only for the sake of its declared dependencies on other packages, for instance to keep the current default version of gcc installed. See metapackage and transition-package for other common types.

    DFSG

    Short for the Debian Free Software Guidelines; the rules of thumb included in the Debian Social Contract that can be used to judge whether material counts for the project's purposes as free. The string dfsg is often appended to package names and version-strings to indicate that the upstream version has been slightly modified to allow it to stay in main.

    D-I

    See Debian-Installer

    Distribution (dist)

    Dist-upgrade

    DM

    See Debian Maintainer.

    DMUP

    Short for Debian Machine Use Policies; the documented Acceptable Use Policy for machines on the Debian network.

    Downgrade

    An action not officially supported in Debian package management, though often possible (and where it isn't, a purge and reinstallation of the older version is often good enough).

    DPL

    Short for ?Debian Project Leader

    DPMT

    The Debian Python Modules Team, who work to improve the Python modules situation in Debian.

    DSA

    Short for either Debian Security Advisory or Debian Systems Administrators

    E

    Essential

    A set of packages providing the absolute minimal functionality that must be available and usable on the system at all times. The idea is, if you're hit by a software or hardware failure halfway through an upgrade, leaving your package database in an inconsistent state, the essential packages should still work well enough to let you perform repair work.

    F

    Failed

    (Plus more rarely failed-removed) A wanna-build state

    FHS

    See Filesystem Hierarchy Standard.

    Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS)

    the FilesystemHierarchyStandard defines the main directories and their contents in Linux and other Unix-like computer operating systems. The Debian Policy Manual only explains the exceptions applying to Debian.

    Free

    Compliant with the DFSG, and eligible to go in main

    Freeze

    The distribution development freeze is a period of time when the Debian Project is working to finalize and stabilize the content of the testing distribution (resolving release critical bugs, making final tweaks to Debian-Installer, deciding the contents of the CDs, etc.) before its release as the new stable. Debian's release policy is one of Release when Ready, so the length of the freeze period isn't fixed, but it tends to last something like six months.

    Front Desk

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

    FTBFS

    Short for "Fails To Build From Source", a bugreport type produced by the build infrastructure when a package cannot be compiled. See qa.debian.org/FTBFS.

    Full-upgrade

    an aptitude action more or less equivalent to (and formerly known as) a dist-upgrade.

    G

    Giveback

    in autobuilder jargon, packages are "taken" when an attempt is made to build them. Failures are often transient, fixed by simply trying again after a few days, so a "giveback" removes the "taken" flag from the package in the wanna-build database and puts it back into the normal needs-build queue.

    H

    I

    IANADD

    Short for "I Am Not A Debian Developer" - a caveat in the tradition of IANAL

    IANAL

    Short for "I Am Not A Lawyer", often used on the debian-legal mailing list. Not Debian-specific; see Wikipedia's definition.

    ICE

    Short for Internal Compiler Error; used in bug reports for package removal, usually indicating that GCC does not yet fully support a new architecture

    Install

    Installed

    A wanna-build state

    ITA

    Short for "Intent to Adopt", used to track the status of orphaned packages (see WNPP) or documentation (see DDP).

    ITD

    Short for "Intent to Document", used by a documentation maintainer who intends to start writing a document. Using the WNPP system avoids duplicated effort; see DDP.

    ITP

    Short for "Intent To Package", used by a DD or Maintainer who intends to package a piece of software; see WNPP.

    ITT

    Short for "Intent to Translate", used by a translator who intends to start translating a document. This like the above is a mechanism to prevent duplication of efforts; see DDP.

    J

    K

    KSP

    Short for Key Signing Party, a common event at DebConfs and other real-life get-togethers

    L

    M

    Main

    The "truly Debian" archive area, reserved for free software.

    Maintainer

    The maintainer of a package is the person or group of people responsible for it (packaging, bugtracking, etc.); see Debian Policy. See also Debian Maintainer (DM), Debian New Maintainer (process).

    Mass bug filing (MBF)

    Reporting a great number of bugs for the same problem. See the Debian Developer's Reference.

    MBF

    Short for Mass Bug Filing.

    Mentor

    An experienced Debian Member who takes responsibility for assisting a less experienced member or Applicant. Outside occasional efforts such as the Debian Women mentoring program, such relationships generally exist only on an informal and unofficial basis. Every Applicant has an advocate who may effectively act as a mentor; but despite the name of the debian-mentors mailing list, its primary function is to put new maintainers in touch with sponsors.

    Metapackage

    A dependency package designed to automatically pull in a family of packages; may function as a shortcut to simplify installation of a full desktop environment.

    MIA

    Short for Missing In Action; (a database tracking) Debian package maintainers who have abandoned their duties without retiring

    N

    NBS

    Short for Not Built from Source; one of the criteria used to detect candidates for automated package removal, in this case removing a binary package that isn't built from any remaining source package. See ftpmaster_Removals.

    New Maintainer

    See Debian New Maintainer, Applicant, Debian Maintainer.

    NMU

    Short for NonMaintainerUpload; a version of a package that wasn't uploaded by an official Maintainer, but rather by another developer. This typically occurs for security updates, Mass Bug Filings, and when the maintainer is on holiday - see Debian Developer's Reference.

    Non-free

    Not compliant with the DFSG; also, the archive area for software which is non-free but can be legally distributed by Debian.

    NVIU

    Short for Newer Version In Unstable; one of the criteria used to detect candidates for automated package removal, in this case removing an experimental build as superseded by a more recent build already present in unstable. See ftpmaster_Removals.

    O

    O

    Short for the QA status Orphaned

    Obsolete

    Oldstable

    the distribution before the current stable release, which continues to receive some level of security support for a while (commonly a year) after it is superseded.

    Origin

    In Release files and aptitude searches, the organization providing the repository - examples include Debian, Debian Backports, and Google, Inc.

    Orphan

    (Not to be confused with the following) In package management, a stray installed package with no reverse dependencies (such as a library for which the corresponding executable has been purged), which can be detected with tools such as ?deborphan. Such unwanted relics are now increasingly tracked by APT itself.

    Orphaned

    (Not to be confused with the above) Used in package QA to indicate that a package has no maintainer, and needs to be adopted (see ITA and WNPP). If the package has a priority of standard or higher, the severity of the orphaning bug report should be set to important. The term is similarly used to indicate documentation that the author is declaring abandoned; see DDP.

    P

    Package

    Package Tracking System (PTS)

    The Package Tracking System lets you follow almost everything related to the life of a package, and is of interest for co-maintainers, QA workers, and advanced users

    PAPT

    Short for Python Applications Packaging Team

    Pinning

    APT pinning is the name given to the use of apt_preferences(5) to define a modified system of package-management priorities. This makes it possible, for instance, to run an essentially stable system but specify particular packages for which newer candidates (e.g. backports) will automatically be preferred for installation.

    Piuparts

    Short for Package Installation, UPgrading And Removal Testing Suite - see piuparts.

    Popcon

    The popcon score of a Debian package (see http://popcon.debian.org/) is meant to reflect its "popularity"; it is derived from data generated via the package popularity-contest, which periodically and anonymously submits statistics about which binary packages are installed on a system and whether they are used.

    Port

    Priority

    A ranking system for binary packages, indicating how important it is for users to have them installed, and ranging from extra to required (not to be confused with essential). See Policy.

    Pseudo-package

    (Not to be confused with virtual package, prospective package, or the package sudo) A BTS address that doesn't correspond to a package name; see http://www.debian.org/Bugs/pseudo-packages

    PTS

    Short for Package Tracking System

    Purge

    In Debian package management, to uninstall a package completely, deleting its conffiles. See remove

    Q

    QA

    Short for Quality Assurance - see qa.debian.org

    R

    Release

    see Debian Release

    Remove

    RFA

    Short for Request for Adoption; a WNPP bug tag indicating that (due to lack of time, interest, or other resources) 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. Compare Orphaned.

    RFD

    Short for Request for Documentation; a DDP bug tag indicating that a manual or other documentation on a given topic is not yet available on the DDP and the reporting user requests that DDP members should give it priority when deciding which documents need to be written.

    RFH

    Short for Request For Help; a WNPP bug tag indicating that the current maintainer wants to continue to maintain this package, but needs some help to do this. This may be because the maintainer is overstretched in general, or because this package is particularly hard to maintain, or because bugs require specialist expertise to fix.

    RFP

    Short for Request For Package; a WNPP bug tag indicating that the reporter has found an interesting piece of software and would like someone else to maintain it for Debian.

    RoM

    Short for Request of Maintainer; used in bug reports for package removal, to indicate that it has been agreed with the package's own maintainer.

    Root
    A word with several (non-Debian-specific) technical uses, all deriving from the same metaphor of a node structure with a root and branches:

    RoRT

    Short for Request of Release Team; used in bug reports for package removal, to indicate that issues have been confirmed by the Release Team.

    S

    Safe-upgrade

    an aptitude action more or less equivalent to (and formerly known as) an upgrade.

    Section

    Severity

    A ranking system for bugreports, indicating how important it is for it to be fixed, and ranging from wishlist to critical. See http://www.debian.org/Bugs/Developer#severities

    Sid

    sid is the codename for unstable. While other codenames cycle through from testing to stable to oldstable, the name "Sid" stays in the same place permanently.

    Source

    Source package

    Sponsor

    a Debian Member with upload privileges who uses them on behalf of a package maintainer without such privileges. The sponsor is required to take responsibility for checking that there are no show-stopping quality issues, but is not recorded as the maintainer of the package. A sponsorship may be a one-off event, or the sponsor may also act informally as a mentor, helping to track down bugs and improve the packaging.

    Stable

    the stable distribution is the release recommended for production use. Each stable release is "promoted" from testing status as the result of a cycle of development, debugging, and integration that usually lasts about two years.

    Suite

    T

    Testing

    testing is the Debian distribution automatically generated out of packages migrating from unstable. The first step towards a new stable release is that testing undergoes a freeze.

    TINLA

    Short for "This Is Not Legal Advice"; compare IANAL.

    Transition package

    A dependency package designed to automatically replace one package with another, to smooth over a rename or similar migration (especially for users performing a dist-upgrade).

    U

    Unstable

    unstable is the Debian distribution where you can find the latest packages introduced into the Debian system.

    Update

    In APT (or front-ends), the process of refreshing the package-management system's information about what packages are available from the registered sources. Not to be confused with (or omitted before) an upgrade

    Upgrade

    Urgency

    A ranking system for uploads, indicating how important it is for the new version to reach the archives, and ranging from low to critical. See Policy

    V

    Virtual package

    a binary package that exists in name only, with no associated .deb file; used to organize systems of alternative dependencies (multiple binary packages can claim to "Provide" the same virtual package).

    W

    Wanna-build

    a tool forming part of the autobuild system that maintains a database of the build status of packages (see http://www.debian.org/devel/buildd/wanna-build-states for details)

    WNPP

    Short for "Work-Needing and Prospective Packages" - a pseudopackage used to collect reports of packages (and potential packages) in need of (new) maintainers in Debian; see http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/, ITP, O, RFA, RFH, RFP.

    X

    Y

    Z

    . (dot)

    .deb

    File extension used for the standard installable binary package format used by Debian-based distributions.

    .dsc

    File extension used for a Debian Source Control file, which is a particular format of control file forming a crucial component of a source-package

    .tdeb

    File extension used for (proposed) separate translation packages - see Dep-4

    .udeb

    File extension used for special packages containing Debian-Installer modules, not intended for installation on a normal system.