Linux dictionary

From RuteưUsersưGuide http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LinuxưDictionary/html/index.html $BASH_VERSION environment variable Expands to the version number of this instance of bash.. From RuteưUsers

This document is designed to be a resource for those Linux users wishing to seek clarification on

Linux/UNIX/POSIX related terms and jargon At approximately 24000 definitions and two thousand pages it

is one of the largest Linux related dictionaries currently available Due to the rapid rate at which new termsare being created it has been decided that this will be an active project We welcome input into the content ofthis document At this moment in time half yearly updates are being envisaged

Please note that if you wish to find a 'Computer Dictionary' then see the 'Computer Dictionary Project' athttp://computerdictionary.tsf.org.za/

Searchable databases exist at locations such as:

http://www.swpearl.com/eng/scripts/dictionary/

(SWP) Sun Wah−PearL Linux Training and Development Centre is a centre of the Hong Kong PolytechnicUniversity, established in 2000 Presently SWP is delivering professional grade Linux and related OpenSource Software (OSS) technology training and consultant service in Hong Kong SWP has an ambitious aim

to promote the use of Linux and related Open Source Software (OSS) and Standards The vendor independentpositioning of SWP has been very well perceived by the market Throughout the last couple of years, SWPbecomes the Top Leading OSS training and service provider in Hong Kong

http://www.geona.com/dictionary?b=

Geona, operated by Gold Vision Communications, is a new powerful search engine and internet directory,delivering quick and relevant results on almost any topic or subject you can imagine The term "Geona" is anItalian and Hebrew name, meaning wisdom, exaltation, pride or majesty We use our own database of

spidered web sites and the Open Directory database, the same database which powers the core directoryservices for the Web's largest and most popular search engines and portals Geona is spidering all domainslisted in the non−adult part of the Open Directory and millions of additional sites of general interest tomaintain a fulltext index of highly relevant web sites

http://www.linuxdig.com/documents/dictionary.php

with the original intention of getting the RFC's online and becoming an Open Source software link/downloadsite But since that time the site has evolved to become a RFC distribution site, linux news site and a locallywritten technology news site (with bad grammer :)) with focus on Linux while also containing articles aboutanything and everything we find interesting in the computer world LinuxDig.Com contains about 20,000documents and this number is growing everyday!

http://linux.about.com/library/glossary/blglossary.htm

Each month more than 20 million people visit About.com Whether it be home repair and decorating ideas,recipes, movie trailers, or car buying tips, our Guides offer practical advice and solutions for every day life.Wherever you land on the new About.com, you'll find other content that is relevant to your interests If you'relooking for "How To" advice on planning to re−finish your deck, we'll also show you the tools you need to getthe job done If you've been to About before, we'll show you the latest updates, so you don't see the samething twice No matter where you are on About.com, or how you got here, you'll always find content that isrelevant to your needs

Should you wish to possess your own localised searcheable version please make use of the available "dict",http://www.dict.org/ version at the Linux Documentation Project home page, http://www.tldp.org/ The authorhas decided to leave it up to readers to determine how to install and run it on their specific systems

An alternative form of the dictionary is available at:

http://elibrary.fultus.com/covers/technical/linux/guides/Linux−Dictionary/cover.html

Fultus Corporation helps writers and companies to publish, promote, market, and sell books and eBooks.Fultus combines traditional self−publishing practices with modern technology to produce paperback andhardcover print−on−demand (POD) books and electronic books (eBooks) Fultus publishes works (fiction,non−fiction, science fiction, mystery, ) by both published and unpublished authors We enable you toself−publish easily and cost−effectively, creating your book as a print−ready paperback or hardcover PODbook or as an electronic book (eBook) in multiple eBook's formats You retain all rights to your work Weprovide distribution to bookstores worldwide And all at a fraction of the cost of traditional publishing Wealso offer corporate publishing solutions that enable businesses to produce and deliver manuals and

documentation more efficiently and economically Our use of electronic delivery and print−on−demandtechnologies reduces printed inventory and saves time

Please inform the author as to whether you would like to create a database or an alternative form of thedictionary so that he can include you in this list Also note that the author considers breaches of copyright to

be extremely serious He will pursue all claims to the fullest extent of the law

Copyright 2003 Binh Nguyen

Trademarks are owned by their owners

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU FreeDocumentation License, Version 1.2; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front−Cover Texts, and with noBack−Cover Texts A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free DocumentationLicense"

Table of Contents

Source and pre−formatted versions available 1

Chapter 1 Linux Dictionary 2

Punctuation 3

A 204

B 295

C 355

D 453

E 547

F 597

G 655

H 736

I 770

J 841

K 859

L 896

M 973

N 1066

O 1120

P 1157

Q 1266

R 1275

S 1341

T 1489

Table of Contents

U 1566

V 1597

W 1631

X 1671

Y 1727

Z 1733

Appendix A About the Author 1740

Appendix B Contributors 1741

Appendix C Disclaimer 1742

Appendix D Donations 1743

Appendix E Feedback 1744

Bibliography 1745

Appendix F GNU Free Documentation License 1752

F.1 PREAMBLE 1752

F.2 APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS 1752

F.3 VERBATIM COPYING 1753

F.4 COPYING IN QUANTITY 1754

F.5 MODIFICATIONS 1754

F.6 COMBINING DOCUMENTS 1755

F.7 COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS 1756

F.8 AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS 1756

F.9 TRANSLATION 1756

F.10 TERMINATION 1757

F.11 FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE 1757

F.12 ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents 1757

Source and pre−formatted versions available

The source code and other machine readable formats of this book can be found on the Internet at the LinuxDocumentation Project home page http://www.tldp.org/ The latest version of this document can be found athttp://cvsview.tldp.org/index.cgi/LDP/guide/docbook/Linux−Dictionary/

Chapter 1 Linux Dictionary

$BASH environment variable

Expands to the full pathname used to invoke this instance of bash From RuteưUsersưGuide

http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LinuxưDictionary/html/index.html

$BASH_VERSION environment variable

Expands to the version number of this instance of bash From RuteưUsersưGuide

http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LinuxưDictionary/html/index.html

$CDPATH environment variable

The search path for the cd command This is a colonưseparated list of directories in which the shelllooks for destination directories specified by the cd command A sample value is ``.:~:/usr'' FromRuteưUsersưGuide http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LinuxưDictionary/html/index.html

$ENV environment variable

If this parameter is set when bash is executing a shell script, its value is interpreted as a filenamecontaining commands to initialize the shell, as in bashrc The value of ENV is subjected to parameterexpansion, command substitution, and arithmetic expansion before being interpreted as a pathname.PATH is not used to search for the resultant pathname From RuteưUsersưGuide

http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LinuxưDictionary/html/index.html

$FIGNORE environment variable

A colonưseparated list of suffixes to ignore when performing filename completion (see READLINEbelow) A filename whose suffix matches one of the entries in FIGNORE is excluded from the list ofmatched filenames A sample value is ``.o:~'' From RuteưUsersưGuide

http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LinuxưDictionary/html/index.html

$HISTCMD environment variable

The history number, or index in the history list, of the current command If HISTCMD is unset, itloses its special properties, even if it is subsequently reset From RuteưUsersưGuide

http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LinuxưDictionary/html/index.html

$HISTCONTROL environment variable

If set to a value of ignorespace, lines which begin with a space character are not entered on the historylist If set to a value of ignoredups, lines matching the last history line are not entered A value ofignoreboth combines the two options If unset, or if set to any other value than those above, all linesread by the parser are saved on the history list From RuteưUsersưGuide

http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LinuxưDictionary/html/index.html

$HISTFILE environment variable

The name of the file in which command history is saved (See HISTORY below.) The default value is

~/.bash_history If unset, the command history is not saved when an interactive shell exits FromRuteưUsersưGuide http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LinuxưDictionary/html/index.html

$HISTFILESIZE environment variable

The maximum number of lines contained in the history file When this variable is assigned a value,the history file is truncated, if necessary, to contain no more than that number of lines The defaultvalue is 500 From RuteưUsersưGuide http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LinuxưDictionary/html/index.html

$HISTSIZE environment variable

The number of commands to remember in the command history (see HISTORY below) The defaultvalue is 500 From RuteưUsersưGuide http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LinuxưDictionary/html/index.html

$HOME environment variable

The home directory of the current user; the default argument for the cd builtin command FromRuteưUsersưGuide http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LinuxưDictionary/html/index.html

$HOSTFILE

Contains the name of a file in the same format as /etc/hosts that should be read when the shell needs

to complete a hostname The file may be changed interactively; the next time hostname completion is

attempted bash adds the contents of the new file to the already existing database From

be used like $IFS From HackingưLexicon

$INPUTRC environment variable

The filename for the readline startup file, overriding the default of ~/.inputrc (see READLINE

below) From RuteưUsersưGuide http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LinuxưDictionary/html/index.html

$LINENO

Each time this parameter is referenced, the shell substitutes a decimal number representing the currentsequential line number (starting with 1) within a script or function When not in a script or function,the value substituted is not guaranteed to be meaningful When in a function, the value is not thenumber of the source line that the command appears on (that information has been lost by the time thefunction is executed), but is an approximation of the number of simple commands executed in thecurrent function If LINENO is unset, it loses its special properties, even if it is subsequently reset.From RuteưUsersưGuide http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LinuxưDictionary/html/index.html

$MAILPATH

A colonưseparated list of pathnames to be checked for mail The message to be printed may bespecified by separating the pathname from the message with a `?' $_ stands for the name of thecurrent mailfile Example: MAILPATH='/usr/spool/mail/bfox?"You have mail":~/shellưmail?"$_ hasmail!"' Bash supplies a default value for this variable, but the location of the user mail files that it uses

is system dependent (e.g., /usr/spool/mail/$USER) From RuteưUsersưGuide

http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LinuxưDictionary/html/index.html

$MAIL_WARNING

If set, and a file that bash is checking for mail has been accessed since the last time it was checked,the message ``The mail in mailfile has been read'' is printed From RuteưUsersưGuide

by the administrator who installs bash A common value is

``/usr/gnu/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/ucb:/bin:/usr/bin:.'' From RuteưUsersưGuide

http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LinuxưDictionary/html/index.html

$PATH

The shell looks for commands and programs in a list of file paths stored in the PATH environmentvariable An environment variable stores information in a place where other programs and commandscan access it Environment variables store information such as the shell that you are using, your loginname, and your current working directory To see a list of all the environment variables currentlydefined; type 'set' at the prompt When you type a command at the shell prompt, the shell will look forthat command's program file in each directory listed in the PATH variable, in order The first programfound matching the command you typed will be run If the command's program file is not in a

directory listed in you PATH environment variable, the shell returns a "commands not found" error

By default, the shell does not look in your current working directory or your home directory forcommands This is really a security mechanism so that you don't execute programs by accident What

if a malicious user put a harmful program called ls in your home directory? If you typed ls and theshell looked for the fake program in your home directory before the real program in the /bin directory,what do you think woul dhappen? If you thought bad things, you are on the right track Since yourPATH doesn't have the current directory as one of its search locations, programs in your currentdirectory must be called with an absolute path of a relative path specified as './programưname' To seewhat directories are part of your PATH enter this command: # echo $PATH

/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11 From CompleteưIdiot's Guide toLinux http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LinuxưDictionary/html/index.html

indicate multiple levels of indirection The default is ``+ '' From RuteưUsersưGuide

http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LinuxưDictionary/html/index.html

$SECONDS

Each time this parameter is referenced, the number of seconds since shell invocation is returned If avalue is assigned to SECONDS the value returned upon subsequent references is the number ofseconds since the assignment plus the value assigned If SECONDS is unset, it loses its specialproperties, even if it is subsequently reset From RuteưUsersưGuide

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