Glossary of important term defined in Debian Policy
- architecture:
Policy:5.6.8, all, any, source, architecture specification string
architecture: RepositoryHOWTO
architecture specification string: Policy:11.1
archive: The name of the distribution of Debian the packages in this directory belong to (or are designed for), i.e. stable, testing or unstable repository-howto RepositoryHOWTO
archive: repository (dists, pools and their contents) DevRef:4.6
base system: Policy:3.7
binary Dependencies: Policy:7.2 : Depends, Recommends, Suggests, Enhances, Pre-Depends
binary package: Policy:3
build-essential: Policy:4.2
category: Policy:2.0, Policy:2.2
code name: DevRef:4.6.5 (etch, sid, ...)
component: RepositoryHOWTO
configuration file: Policy:10.7.1 : Almost all conffiles are configuration files, but many configuration files are not conffiles.
conffile: Policy:10.7.1 : Almost all conffiles are configuration files, but many configuration files are not conffiles.
- contrib:
distribution area: Policy:2.0
category: Policy:2.2.2
Debian Free Software Guidelines: Policy:2.1
Debian GNU/Linux distribution: build from the main category: Policy:2.0
- DFSG: see Debian Free Software Guidelines
distribution: Policy:5.6.14 , DevRef:4.6.4 (stable, testing, unstable, oldstable )
Distribution: RepositoryHOWTO: The three Debian distributions: stable, testing and unstable
distribution area: Policy:2.0
distribution name: Policy:5.6.14: stable, unstable, testing, frozen, experimental
essential: Policy:3.5
essential package: Policy:3.8
label: RepositoryHOWTO
main: category: Policy:2.0, Policy:2.2.1
maintainer: Policy:3.3
- non-free:
distribution area: Policy:2.0
category: Policy:2.2.3
non-main: Policy:2.2.1
origin: RepositoryHOWTO
package: Policy:2.0
priority: Policy:2.0, Policy:2.5 , Policy:5.6.6
priority level: Policy:2.5 : required, important, standard, optional, extra
repository http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/repository-howto/repository-howto.en.html
automatic Repository, with distribution. Debian References use Archive
trivial Repositoriry, simple directory
- section:
Policy:2.0, Policy:5.6.5, DevRef:4.6.1 main, contrib, non-free
groups within categories: Policy:2.4 : admin, comm, devel, doc, editors, electronics, embedded, games, gnome, graphics, hamradio, interpreters, kde, libs, libdevel, mail, math, misc, net, news, oldlibs, otherosfs, perl, python, science, shells, sound, tex, text, utils, web, x11; DevRef:4.6.1: Note that the term "section" is also used to refer to categories which simplify the organization and browsing of available packages, e.g. admin, net, utils etc.
section field: Policy:2.4; section on main; segment/section on contrib, non-free
segment: Policy:2.4
source package: Policy:4
uploader: Policy:5.6.3
upstream source: Policy:4.3
urgency: Policy:5.6.17 : low, medium, high, emergency, critical
virtual package: Policy:3.6
Sources
Debian Policy Manual (Policy) in http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/index.html
Debian Developer's Reference (?DevRef) in http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/developers-reference/index.en.html
Debian Repository HOWTO in (RepositoryHOWTO) http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/repository-howto/repository-howto.en.html
---
Debian Glossary
The following glossary is written by topics. To search a specific term, use the search function of your browser.
From package to archive
Package
Package has a lot of different meaning. essentially:
Additionally:
virtual packages (Policy:3.6)
upstream package (Policy:3.2, prefer: upstream source, e.g. in Policy:4.3)
Sometime package is used without any additional attribute, usually it refers to binary package, or sometime attribute it is not important, e.g. a package maintainer should maintain both source and binary version of own packages.
Additionally, sometime we see the Debian attribute (Debian package Policy:1.1, Policy:5.6.12). On documentation specific to Debian it is not really need, but it should be used when discussing different package types.
Note:
essential package are binary package
Source Package
source package (Policy:4). It contains upstream sources ... see dpkg-sources(1)
Two types:
non-native (http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/footnotes.html#f15 Policy:4.4]) or not Debian-native (Policy:12.7)
native (dpkg-sources(1))
Binary Package
binary package (Policy:3)
Section
Section Policy:2.4
Groups of package to simplify handling, actually: admin, comm, devel, doc, editors, electronics, embedded, games, gnome, graphics, hamradio, interpreters, kde, libs, libdevel, mail, math, misc, net, news, oldlibs, otherosfs, perl, python, science, shells, sound, tex, text, utils, web, x11
Section field (Policy:5.6.5), field on control (source or binary part), which is formed:
section if the package is in the main category,
segment/section if the package is in the contrib or non-free distribution areas.
Priority
Priority classifies (Policy:2.5, Policy:5.6.6, Policy:4.3) package importance both on source and binary packages:
required
important
standard
optional
extra
Architecture
Could describe also:
architecture specification string
architecture field: which contain an architecture specification string or all or any or source (Policy:5.6.8)
Architecture specification string
Architecture specification string (Policy:5.6.8, Policy:11.1): one of the strings provided by dpkg-architecture -L
Sometime simply architecture (name) (Policy:5.1, Policy:7.1)