Linux Dictionary
Version 0.11Author: Binh Nguyen
Editor: Sam Varghese
Database Creator: Martin Wheeler
Maintainer: Dale Rogers 20030809
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 9000 definitions and one thousand pages it
is one of the largest Linux related dictionaries currently
available. Due to the rapid rate at which new terms are being
created it has been decided that this will be an active project. We
welcome input into the content of this document. At this moment in
half yearly updates are being envisaged. The Linux Dictionary
online database may be accessed from its home page at
http://startext.demon.co.uk/LinuxDictionary/ Readers may query the
dictionary database by keyword, generate a complete listing of all
terms and definitions marked up in HTML, or contribute to the Linux
Dictionary wiki at
http://startext.demon.co.uk/distwiki/index.php?LinuxDictionary
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 Free Documentation License,
Version 1.2; with no Invariant Sections, with no FrontCover Texts,
and with no BackCover Texts. A copy of the license is included in
the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".
Linux Dictionary
Table of ContentsSource and preformatted versions
available..................................................................................................1
Chapter 1. Linux
Dictionary..............................................................................................................................2
Punctuation
..........................................................................................................................................................3
A..........................................................................................................................................................................13
B..........................................................................................................................................................................58
C..........................................................................................................................................................................97
D........................................................................................................................................................................149
E........................................................................................................................................................................197
F........................................................................................................................................................................222
G.......................................................................................................................................................................259
H.......................................................................................................................................................................320
I.........................................................................................................................................................................341
J
.........................................................................................................................................................................374
K.......................................................................................................................................................................386
L........................................................................................................................................................................414
M.......................................................................................................................................................................470
N........................................................................................................................................................................524
O.......................................................................................................................................................................550
P........................................................................................................................................................................567
Q.......................................................................................................................................................................633
R........................................................................................................................................................................639
S........................................................................................................................................................................678
T........................................................................................................................................................................763
i
Linux Dictionary
Table of
ContentsU........................................................................................................................................................................812
V........................................................................................................................................................................830
W
.......................................................................................................................................................................846
X........................................................................................................................................................................874
Y........................................................................................................................................................................920
Z........................................................................................................................................................................925
Appendix A. Contributors
..............................................................................................................................931
Appendix B.
Disclaimer..................................................................................................................................932
Appendix C. Feedback
....................................................................................................................................933
Appendix D.
References.................................................................................................................................934
Appendix E. GNU Free Documentation
License.........................................................................................937
E.1.
PREAMBLE.................................................................................................................................937
E.2. APPLICABILITY AND
DEFINITIONS.....................................................................................937
E.3. VERBATIM
COPYING..............................................................................................................938
E.4. COPYING IN
QUANTITY.........................................................................................................939
E.5. MODIFICATIONS
.......................................................................................................................939
E.6. COMBINING
DOCUMENTS.....................................................................................................940
E.7. COLLECTIONS OF
DOCUMENTS...........................................................................................941
E.8. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT
WORKS.................................................................941
E.9.
TRANSLATION..........................................................................................................................941
E.10.
TERMINATION........................................................................................................................942
E.11. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS
LICENSE.............................................................................942
E.12. ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your
documents....................................................942
ii
Source and preformatted versions availableThe source code and
other machine readable formats of this book can be found on the
Internet at the Linux Documentation Project home page
http://www.tldp.org/
Source and preformatted versions available
1
Chapter 1. Linux Dictionary
Chapter 1. Linux Dictionary
2
Punctuation$BASH environment variable Expands to the full
pathname used to invoke this instance of bash. From RuteUsersGuide
$BASH_VERSION environment variable Expands to the version number of
this instance of bash. From RuteUsersGuide $CDPATH environment
variable The search path for the cd command. This is a
colonseparated list of directories in which the shell looks for
destination directories specified by the cd command. A sample value
is ``.:~:/usr''. From RuteUsersGuide $ENV environment variable If
this parameter is set when bash is executing a shell script, its
value is interpreted as a filename containing commands to
initialize the shell, as in .bashrc. The value of ENV is subjected
to parameter expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic
expansion before being interpreted as a pathname. PATH is not used
to search for the resultant pathname. From RuteUsersGuide $FIGNORE
environment variable A colonseparated list of suffixes to ignore
when performing filename completion (see READLINE below). A
filename whose suffix matches one of the entries in FIGNORE is
excluded from the list of matched filenames. A sample value is
``.o:~''. From RuteUsersGuide $HISTCMD environment variable The
history number, or index in the history list, of the current
command. If HISTCMD is unset, it loses its special properties, even
if it is subsequently reset. From RuteUsersGuide $HISTCONTROL
environment variable If set to a value of ignorespace, lines which
begin with a space character are not entered on the history list.
If set to a value of ignoredups, lines matching the last history
line are not entered. A value of ignoreboth combines the two
options. If unset, or if set to any other value than those above,
all lines read by the parser are saved on the history list. From
RuteUsersGuide $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. From RuteUsersGuide
$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 default value is 500. From
RuteUsersGuide $HISTSIZE environment variable The number of
commands to remember in the command history (see HISTORY below).
The default value is 500. From RuteUsersGuide $HOME environment
variable The home directory of the current user; the default
argument for the cd builtin command. From RuteUsersGuide $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 RuteUsersGuide $HOSTTYPE
Automatically set to a string that uniquely describes the type of
machine on which bash is executing. The default is systemdependent.
From RuteUsersGuide $IFS Punctuation 3
Linux Dictionary In UNIX, the $IFS variable separates commands.
It is usually conigured to be the semicolon (;) and newline
characters. However, it can be reconfigured to be other characters
as well. Datadriven attacks will sometimes seek to reset the IFS
variable (e.g. IFS=x), then cause execution within the data field
wihtout having to insert shell metacharacters. Tidbit: On Linux,
the $FF variable may also be used like $IFS. From HackingLexicon
$IFS The Internal Field Separator that is used for word splitting
after expansion and to split lines into words with the read builtin
command. The default value is ``''. From RuteUsersGuide $IGNOREEOF
Controls the action of the shell on receipt of an EOF character as
the sole input. If set, the value is the number of consecutive EOF
characters typed as the first characters on an input line before
bash exits. If the variable exists but does not have a numeric
value, or has no value, the default value is 10. If it does not
exist, EOF signifies the end of input to the shell. This is only in
effect for interactive shells. From RuteUsersGuide $INPUTRC
environment variable The filename for the readline startup file,
overriding the default of ~/.inputrc (see READLINE below). From
RuteUsersGuide $LINENO Each time this parameter is referenced, the
shell substitutes a decimal number representing the current
sequential 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 the number of the source line that the command appears on
(that information has been lost by the time the function is
executed), but is an approximation of the number of simple commands
executed in the current function. If LINENO is unset, it loses its
special properties, even if it is subsequently reset. From
RuteUsersGuide $MAIL If this parameter is set to a filename and the
MAILPATH variable is not set, bash informs the user of the arrival
of mail in the specified file. From RuteUsersGuide $MAILCHECK
Specifies how often (in seconds) bash checks for mail. The default
is 60 seconds. When it is time to check for mail, the shell does so
before prompting. If this variable is unset, the shell disables
mail checking. From RuteUsersGuide $MAILPATH A colonseparated list
of pathnames to be checked for mail. The message to be printed may
be specified by separating the pathname from the message with a
`?'. $_ stands for the name of the current mailfile. Example:
MAILPATH='/usr/spool/mail/bfox?"You have mail":~/shellmail?"$_ has
mail!"' 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 RuteUsersGuide $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 RuteUsersGuide $OLDPWD
The previous working directory as set by the cd command. From
RuteUsersGuide $OSTYPE Automatically set to a string that describes
the operating system on which bash is executing. The default is
systemdependent. From RuteUsersGuide $PATH The search path for
commands. It is a colonseparated list of directories in which the
shell looks for commands (see COMMAND EXECUTION below). The default
path is systemdependent, and is set by the administrator who
installs bash. A common value is Punctuation 4
Linux Dictionary
``/usr/gnu/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/ucb:/bin:/usr/bin:.''. From
RuteUsersGuide $PATH The shell looks for commands and programs in a
list of file paths stored in the PATH environment variable. An
environment variable stores information in a place where other
programs and commands can access it. Environment variables store
information such as the shell that you are using, your login name,
and your current working directory. To see a list of all the
environment variables currently defined; type 'set' at the prompt.
When you type a command at the shell prompt, the shell will look
for that command's program file in each directory listed in the
PATH variable, in order. The first program found 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
for commands 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 the shell 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 your PATH doesn't have the current directory as one of
its search locations, programs in your current directory must be
called with an absolute path of a relative path specified as
'./programname'. To see what 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 CompleteIdiot's Guide to Linux $PROMPT_COMMAND If set, the
value is executed as a command prior to issuing each primary
prompt. From RuteUsersGuide $PS1 The value of this parameter is
expanded (see PROMPTING below) and used as the primary prompt
string. The default value is ``bash\$ ''. From RuteUsersGuide $PS2
The value of this parameter is expanded and used as the secondary
prompt string. The default is ``> ''. From RuteUsersGuide $PS3
The value of this parameter is used as the prompt for the select
command (see SHELL GRAMMAR above). From RuteUsersGuide $PS4 The
value of this parameter is expanded and the value is printed before
each command bash displays during an execution trace. The first
character of PS4 is replicated multiple times, as necessary, to
indicate multiple levels of indirection. The default is ``+ ''.
From RuteUsersGuide $PWD The current working directory as set by
the cd command. From RuteUsersGuide $RANDOM Each time this
parameter is referenced, a random integer is generated. The
sequence of random numbers may be initialized by assigning a value
to RANDOM. If RANDOM is unset, it loses its special properties,
even if it is subsequently reset. From RuteUsersGuide $SECONDS Each
time this parameter is referenced, the number of seconds since
shell invocation is returned. If a value is assigned to SECONDS.
the value returned upon subsequent references is the number of
seconds since the assignment plus the value assigned. If SECONDS is
unset, it loses its special properties, even if it is subsequently
reset. From RuteUsersGuide $SHLVL Incremented by one each time an
instance of bash is started. From RuteUsersGuide .Z
Punctuation
5
Linux Dictionary File compressed with the compress compression
program. From RuteUsersGuide Can be deflated using the 'uncompress'
utility. .a Archive. lib*.a is a static library. From
RuteUsersGuide .alias X Window System font alias catalog. From
RuteUsersGuide .au Audio format (original Sun Microsystems generic
sound file). From RuteUsersGuide .avi Video format. From
RuteUsersGuide .awk awk program source file. From RuteUsersGuide
.bib bibtex LATEX bibliography source file. From RuteUsersGuide
.bmp Microsoft Bitmap file image format. From RuteUsersGuide .bz
File compressed with the bzip compression algorithm/program. These
files are mostly redundant now. The vast majority of files are
compressed using the superior bzip2 program. From RuteUsersGuide
.bz2 File compressed with the bzip2 compression program. From
RuteUsersGuide .c C program source code. From RuteUsersGuide .cc,
.cxx, .C, .cpp C++ program source code. From RuteUsersGuide .cf,
.cfg Configuration file or script. From RuteUsersGuide .cgi
Executable script that produces web page output. From
RuteUsersGuide .conf, .config Configuration file. From
RuteUsersGuide .csh csh shell script. From RuteUsersGuide .db
Database file. From RuteUsersGuide .deb Debian package for the
Debian distribution. From RuteUsersGuide .diff Output of the diff
program indicating the difference between files or source trees.
From RuteUsersGuide .dir X Window System font/other database
directory. From RuteUsersGuide .dvi Deviceindependent file.
Formatted output of .tex LATEX file. From RuteUsersGuide .el Lisp
program source. From RuteUsersGuide .forward On UNIX, a user can
place an email address in his ".forward" file. This will cause all
email sent to his account to be forwarded to that email address.
This file a is prime target of attackers. If they can overwrite
this file, they can subtly start capturing the user's email. This
is especially dangerous if the the account in question is the root
account. Note that the user doesn't have to know any about this
file Punctuation 6
Linux Dictionary or have one on his system. The mere creation of
this file by the intruder will activate this feature. Furthermore,
since this file starts with a 'dot', it is normally hidden from the
user, so they won't even be ware that this feature exists. From
HackingLexicon .g3 G3 fax format image file. From RuteUsersGuide
.gif, .giff GIF image file. From RuteUsersGuide .gz File compressed
with the gzip compression program. From RuteUsersGuide .h C/C++
program header file. From RuteUsersGuide .htm, .html, .shtm, .html
Hypertext Markup Language. A web page of some sort. From
RuteUsersGuide .i SWIG source, or C preprocessor output. From
RuteUsersGuide .in configure input file. From RuteUsersGuide .info
Info pages read with the info command. From RuteUsersGuide .jpg,
.jpeg JPEG image file. From RuteUsersGuide .lj LaserJet file.
Suitable input to a HP LaserJet printer. From RuteUsersGuide .log
Log file of a system service. This file grows with status messages
of some system program. From RuteUsersGuide .lsm LINUX Software Map
entry. From RuteUsersGuide .lyx LyX word processor document. From
RuteUsersGuide .man Man page. From RuteUsersGuide .mf MetaFont font
program source file. From RuteUsersGuide .pbm PBM image file
format. From RuteUsersGuide .pcf PCF image fileintermediate
representation for fonts. X Window System font. From RuteUsersGuide
.pcx PCX image file. From RuteUsersGuide .pdf Formatted document
similar to PostScript or dvi. From RuteUsersGuide .pfb X Window
System font file. From RuteUsersGuide .php PHP program source code
(used for web page design). From RuteUsersGuide .pl Perl or Prolog
program source code. From RuteUsersGuide .ps PostScript file, for
printing or viewing. From RuteUsersGuide Punctuation 7
Linux Dictionary .py Python program source code. From
RuteUsersGuide .rpm RedHat Package Manager rpm file. From
RuteUsersGuide .sgml Standard Generalized Markup Language. Used to
create documents to be converted to many different formats. From
RuteUsersGuide .sh sh shell script. From RuteUsersGuide It can be
interpreted by any Bourne compatible shell. .so Shared object file.
lib*.so is a Dynamically Linked Library. [Executable program code
shared by more than one program to save disk space and memory.]
From RuteUsersGuide .spd Speedo X Window System font file. From
RuteUsersGuide .src.rpm Source RPM file. A 'tarball' that can be
recompiled and installed which also allows RPM based systems to
manage them. From Binh .tar tarred directory tree. From
RuteUsersGuide .tar.gz See tarball. From Binh .tcl Tcl/Tk source
code (programming language). From RuteUsersGuide .tex TEX or LATEX
document. LATEX is for document processing and typesetting. From
RuteUsersGuide .texi, .texinfo Texinfo source. Info pages are
compiled from these. From RuteUsersGuide .tfm LATEX font metric
file. From RuteUsersGuide .tga TARGA image file. From
RuteUsersGuide .tgz Directory tree that has been archived with tar,
and then compressed with gzip. Also a package for the Slackware
distribution. From RuteUsersGuide .tiff TIFF image file. From
RuteUsersGuide .ttf Truetype font. From RuteUsersGuide .txt Plain
English text file. From RuteUsersGuide .voc Audio format
(Soundblaster's own format). From RuteUsersGuide .wav Audio format
(sound files common to Microsoft Windows). From RuteUsersGuide .xml
XML source file. See XML. From Binh .xpm XPM image file. From
RuteUsersGuide .y yacc source file. From RuteUsersGuide Punctuation
8
Linux Dictionary .zip File compressed with the pkzip (or
PKZIP.EXE for DOS) compression program. From RuteUsersGuide /bin A
directory containing executable programs, primarily binary files.
From Igloss /bin A directory that contains executable programs, the
majority of which are stored in binary files. Most programs are
found in directories /bin and /usr/bin; however, users often keep
additional programs in private bin directories, such as
/home/linux/bin. From Linux Guide @FirstLinux /dev/null On UNIX,
this is a virtualfile that can be written to. Data written to this
file gets discarded. It is similar to the file call NUL on Windows
machines. Key point: When rooting a machine, intruders will often
redirect logging to /dev/null For example, the command ln s
/dev/null .bash_history will cause the system to stop logging bash
commands. Culture: In the vernacular, means much the same thing as
black hole. Typical usage: if you don't like what I have to say,
please direct your comments to /dev/null. From HackingLexicon /etc
The directory on UNIX where the majority of the configuration
information is kept. It is roughly analogous to the Windows
registry. Of particular interest is /etc/passwd file that stores
all the passwords. Key point: If an intruder can read files from
this directory, then they can likely use the information to attack
the machine. From HackingLexicon /etc/hosts The file that contains
a list of hostname to IP address mappings. In the old days of the
Internet, this is how machines contacted each other. A master hosts
file was maintained and downloaded to machines on a regular basis.
Then DNS came along. Like the vestigial appendix. On Windows, this
file is stored in %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc. Hack: If you
can write files to a user's machine, then you can add entries to
his/her hosts files to point to your own machine instead. For
example, put an entry for www.microsoft.com to point to your
machine, then proxy all the connections for the user. This will
allow you to perform a man in the middle attack. From
HackingLexicon /etc/hosts.equiv On UNIX, the "hosts.equiv" file
lists other hosts that can be thought of as "equivalent" to this
one. This machine will therefore "trust" these other machines.
Users connecting to this machine from the listed machines will not
have to present a password, it is assumed that these other machines
have already verified the password. Analogy: The European Union
(EU) doesn't have passport control between countries. You only have
to present your passport when entering the first European country,
then you can roam freely once inside the union. The "hosts.equiv"
file creates a similar union of machines. Hack: Hackers will target
this file. If their target is machine A, they may instead find that
A trusts B, and B may be easier to break into first. At that point,
the hacker can hop back to A using an account on B. Likewise, if a
hacker can write to this file, they can tell the system to trust
any other system on the network (including the hackers own
machine). Hack: Older software would do a reverse DNS lookup on a
connecting IP address. If the hacker controlled the DNS server,
s/he could return a trusted domain name, and therefore be allowed
into the system. Another older hack is the default "+" entry. From
HackingLexicon /etc/passwd The UNIX file that contains the account
information, such as username, password, login directory, and
default shell. All normal users on the system can read this file.
Key point: The passwords are encrypted, so even though everyone can
read the file, it doesn't automatically guarantee access to the
system. However, programs like crack are very effective at
decrypting the passwords. On any system with many accounts, there
is a good chance the hacker will be able to crack some of the
accounts if they get hold of this file. Key point: Modern UNIX
systems allow for shadowed password files, stored in locations like
/etc/shadow that only root has access to. The normal password file
still exists, minus Punctuation 9
Linux Dictionary the password information. This provides
backwards compatibility for programs that still must access the
password file for account information, but which have no interest
in the passwords themselves. Key point: The chief goal of most
hacks against UNIX systems is to retrieve the password file. Many
attacks do not compromise the machine directly, but are able to
read files from the machine, such as this file. From HackingLexicon
/etc/services On UNIX, the configuration file /etc/services maps
port numbers to named services. Key point: Its role in life is so
that programs can do a getportbyname() sockets call in their code
in order to get what port they should use. For example, a POP3
email daemon would do a getportbyname("pop3") in order to retrieve
the number 110 that pop3 runs at. The idea is that if all POP3
daemons use getportbyname(), then no matter what POP3 daemon you
run, you can always reconfigure its port number by editing
/etc/services. Misunderstanding: This file is bad in order to
figure out what port numbers mean. If you want to find out what
ports programs are using, you should instead use the program lsof
to find out exactly which ports are bound to which processes. If
running lsof is not appropriate, then you should lookup the ports
in a more generic reference. From HackingLexicon 0day (zeroday) The
term 0day exploit describes an exploit that is not publicly known.
It describe tools by elite hackers who have discovered a new bug
and shared it only with close friends. It also describes some new
exploit for compromising popular services (the usual suspects:
BIND, FTP services, Linux distros, Microsoft IIS, Solaris servers).
Many 0day exploits are discovered by the victims when hackers use
them, or by honeypots. The term "0day" describes the fact that the
value of exploits quickly goes down as soon as they are announced.
The next day they are half as valuable. The 2nd day they are a 1/4
as valuable. Ten days later they are 1/1000 as valuable as on day
0. This is because scriptkiddies quickly use the exploits on
computers throughout the Internet, compromising systems before
anybody else can get to them. Contrast: The term 0day exploit
describe the hardtouse exploits by the discoverer himself (or close
friends), in contrast to the easytouse scripts employed by script
kiddies. For example, a bufferoverflow script will go through many
phases as people try to find the right offsets for the target
platforms, but will eventually end up as a broadspectrum
aimandshoot script that anybody could use. Key point: One of the
dangers of 0day exploits is BUGTRAQ camping. A hacker discovers all
the services running on the target victim and waits for day0 when
the exploit is announced. At that time, the hacker attacks the
systems with the new exploit. Key point: The term "0day" describes
any bit of information in the community, whether it is serial
numbers, lists of proxies, or passwords to porn sites. As soon as
such information becomes wellknown and exploited by large numbers
of people, it is then fixed by the victim. Information has a
"halflife": the older it is, the less value it has. From
HackingLexicon 2Disk Xwindow embedded Linux Mungkie Associates Inc.
provides 2Disk Xwindow embedded Linux. The distribution is intended
to be a demonstration of Mungkie Associates' embedded appliance
development environment, showing the sort of environment that can
be created for small appliance GUI systems. It is further intended
to give a minimal Linux base system on 1 disk and a fully
expandable X system implementation on a second disk. The two disks
can be used together for a minimal system or the X disk can be used
seperately on any libc2.1 linux system. The source tree is compiled
on Debian and the /lib/ files taken directly from the Debian2.2.3
distribution. The 2disk system is free for personal use, but
restrictions apply to commercial usage. Version 1.4rc802 was
released November 6, 2002. Version 1disk1.0 final was released
January 18, 2003. A 1disk 1.0 update was released February 5, 2003.
Version 1.0.8 (Source code) was released May 30, 2003. From LWN
Distribution List 3dchess 3D chess for X11 3 dimensional Chess for
X11R6. Three boards, 96 pieces and 26 directions. From Debian 3.0r0
APT 3Dwm is a 3D window manager for Linux From Binh 3dwm
Punctuation
10
Linux Dictionary The 3dwm project is working with the creation
of a threedimensional worspace manager that can run in the 3D Cube
as well as on desktop computers. Note that wm does not stnad for
the term window manager. It is a bit misleading; 3dwm is not a
window manager in the true sense of the word, but rather more of a
gerneral user environment. The window manager functionality of the
system is merely the tip of the iceberg; 3Dwm contains general
primitives for building applications with threedimensional
interfaces. From 3dwm 3dwmclock A 3Dwm apps The 3Dwm clock
application (tdwmclock) is the first real application that is even
remotely useful. It makes use of the 3Dwm Nobel API, including the
new solid modeling support, to create a threedimensional analog
clock displaying the current time. From Debian 3.0r0 APT
3dwmcsgclient A 3Dwm client A simple client which is builded using
new libsolid. This is only an example on how libsolid work. From
Debian 3.0r0 APT 3dwmgeoclient A 3Dwm client This is a very simple
3Dwm client that connects to the exported GeometryKit in the
server, creates a Geometry, loads a 3D file from the local system
(in this case a simple model of an office, which also happens to be
Rob's room), and passes it to the 3Dwm server. The 3Dwm server will
happily render any geometry that is created, so running geoclient
several times will add more geometries to the graphical output.
Please note that you may need to zoom out (using the 'X' key) to
see graphical output. The geoclient is able to open native .raw
files as well as standard 3ds files (using MeshIO). In other words,
you may experiment by loading other files than the supplied office
model to the 3Dwm server. From Debian 3.0r0 APT 3dwmpickclient A
3Dwm client This is an example showing how libzorn work. From
Debian 3.0r0 APT 3dwmserver Binary server daemon This package
contains display binary server daemon. From Debian 3.0r0 APT
3dwmtexclient A 3Dwm client This is a simple client used for
testing the 3Dwm texture capabilities. From Debian 3.0r0 APT
3dwmvncclient A 3Dwm client This will open a connection to the VNC
server from the 3Dwm server, and the graphical output will be
displayed on a single quad in the 3Dwm world (you may need to zoom
out to see it). Currently, vncclient supports no interaction with
the VNC window (the bindings and the actual communication code has
been implemented, only the 3Dwm side is missing). From Debian 3.0r0
APT 4.2 /for' poynt too'/ n. Without a prefix, this almost
invariably refers to BSD Unix release 4.2. Note that it is an
indication of cluelessness to say "version 4.2", and "release 4.2"
is rare; the number stands on its own, or is used in the more
explicit forms 4.2BSD or (less commonly) BSD 4.2. Similar remarks
apply to "4.3", "4.4" and to earlier, lesswidespread releases 4.1
and 2.9. From Jargon Dictionary 44bsdrdist 4.4BSD rdist. This is
the traditional rdist from 4.4BSD Lite with FreeBSD fixes. It is
provided for compatibility with thirdparty rdist implementations.
This is the binary package for 4.4BSD rdist. From Debian 3.0r0 APT
4Suite The 4Suite package contains XMLrelated tools and libraries
for Python, including 4DOM, 4XSLT, 4XPath, 4RDF, and 4XPointer.
4DOM is animplementation of the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C)
standard DOMAPI for HTML and XML content manipulation. 4DOM
provides full distributedobject support based on the IDL used in
the formal DOM specification. 4XSLT is an XSLT processor, which can
be used to renderXML documents as customized and stylized HTML for
current Web browsers. 4XSLT also provides a powerful programming
API forapplications to use for Punctuation 11
Linux Dictionary lowlevel, customized transformations of XML
documents. 4XPath is a library implementating the W3C's XPath
language for indicating and selecting portions of an XML document.
4RDF is a toolkit and library for RDF processing. 4XPointer is a
toolkit for processing fragment identifiers for URI references
which locateresources of Internet media type text/xml. From Redhat
8.0 RPM 6tunnel TCP proxy for nonIPv6 applications 6tunnel allows
you to use services provided by IPv6 hosts with IPv4only
applications and vice versa. It can bind to any of your IPv4 or
IPv6 addresses and forward all data to IPv4 or IPv6 host. It can be
used for example as an IPv6capable IRC proxy. From Debian 3.0r0 APT
8character password Some systems, like Win9x and Solaris, limit the
user to 8 characters in the password. Key point: Security conscious
users of such systems need to make sure they use a more random mix
of characters because they cannot create long passwords. Key point:
Password cracking such systems is a little easier. From
HackingLexicon 8.3 filename A filename corresponding to the
standard MSDOS gleaming conventions, which restrict filenames to 8
characters and optional extensions to 3 characters. From QUECID
Such restictions can prove to be an infuriating problem like when
transfering files across a heterogenous network such as between
Windows and Linux machines. Since older versions of Windows only
support 8.3 style filenames files transferred to it will be
truncated. For example, "C:\Program Files" may appear to be
"C:\Progra~1" From Binh 822date Command to print date and time in
RFC822 format From whatis 9menu Creates X menus from the shell.
This is 9menu, a simple program that allows you to create X menus
from the shell, where each menu item will run a command. 9menu is
intended for use with 9wm, but can be used with any other window
manager. From Debian 3.0r0 APT 9wm An emulation of the Plan 9
window manager 81/2. 9wm is an X window manager which attempts to
emulate the Plan 9 window manager 81/2 as far as possible within
the constraints imposed by X. It provides a simple yet comfortable
user interface, without garish decorations or titlebars. Or icons.
And it's clicktotype. From Debian 3.0r0 APT [ check file types and
compare values From whatis ~user On UNIX, a home directory can be
referenced by using a tilde (~) followed by their login name. For
example, "ls ~rob" on my computer will list all the files in
"/home/rob". Key point: Webservers often allow access to user's
directories this way. An example would be
http://www.robertgraham.com/~rob. Key point: A big hole on the
Internet is that people unexpectedly open up information. For
example, the file .bash_history is a hidden file in a person's
directory that contains the complete text of all commands they've
entered into the shell (assuming their shell is bash, which is the
most popular one on Linux). From HackingLexicon
Punctuation
12
AABI Application Binary Interface: details the machine language
of the CPU family as well as the calls between the application and
the operating system. From Linux Guide @FirstLinux ACK /ak/ interj.
1. [common; from the ASCII mnemonic for 0000110] Acknowledge. Used
to register one's presence (compare mainstream Yo!). An appropriate
response to ping or ENQ. 2. [from the comic strip "Bloom County"]
An exclamation of surprised disgust, esp. in "Ack pffft!"
Semihumorous. Generally this sense is not spelled in caps (ACK) and
is distinguished by a following exclamation point. 3. Used to
politely interrupt someone to tell them you understand their point
(see NAK). Thus, for example, you might cut off an overly long
explanation with "Ack. Ack. Ack. I get it now". 4. An affirmative.
"Think we ought to ditch that damn NT server for a Linux box?"
"ACK!" There is also a usage "ACK?" (from sense 1) meaning "Are you
there?", often used in email when earlier mail has produced no
reply, or during a lull in talk mode to see if the person has gone
away (the standard humorous response is of course NAK (sense 1),
i.e., "I'm not here"). From Jargon Dictionary ACPI (Advanced
configuration and Power Interface) is an open industry
specification codeveloped by HewlettPackard, Intel, Microsoft, and
Toshiba. ACPI establishes industrystandard interfaces for
OSdirected configuration and power management on laptops, desktops,
and servers. ACPI evolves the existing collection of power
management BIOS code, Advanced Power Management (APM) application
programming interfaces (APIs, PNPBIOS APIs, Multiprocessor
Specification (MPS) tables and so on into a welldefined power
management and configuration interface specification. The
specification enables new power management technology to evolve
independantly in operating systems and hardware while ensuring that
they continue to work together. From ACPI ADN (Advanced Digital
Network) Usually refers to a 56Kbps leasedline. From Matisse ADSL
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Loop is a highspeed Internet access
technology that uses a commonly available telephone copper loop.
ADSL provides data speeds from 384kbps to 1.5 Mbps, normally using
different speeds for the upstream and downstream channel (hence the
" Asymmetric" ). ADSL provides a direct, dedicated pipe to an ISP.
From Linux Guide @FirstLinux ADVENT /ad'vent/ n. The prototypical
computer adventure game, first designed by Will Crowther on the
PDP10 in the mid1970s as an attempt at computerrefereed fantasy
gaming, and expanded into a puzzleoriented game by Don Woods at
Stanford in 1976. (Woods had been one of the authors of INTERCAL.)
Now better known as Adventure or Colossal Cave Adventure, but the
TOPS10 operating system permitted only sixletter filenames. See
also vadding, Zork, and Infocom. This game defined the terse, dryly
humorous style since expected in text adventure games, and
popularized several tag lines that have become fixtures of
hackerspeak: "A huge green fierce snake bars the way!" "I see no X
here" (for some noun X). "You are in a maze of twisty little
passages, all alike." "You are in a little maze of twisty passages,
all different." The `magic words' xyzzy and plugh also derive from
this game. Crowther, by the way, participated in the exploration of
the Mammoth & Flint Ridge cave system; it actually has a
`Colossal Cave' and a `Bedquilt' as in the game, and the `Y2' that
also turns up is cavers' jargon for a map reference to a secondary
entrance. ADVENT sources are available for FTP at
ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/doc/misc/ifarchive/games/source/advent.tar.Z.
There is a Colossal Cave Adventure page. From Jargon Dictionary AES
(Advanced Encryption Standard, Rijndael) The United States
encryption standard that replaces the older/weaker DES standard.
Contrast: The main impetus behind AES to replace DES is the support
for larger key sizes. DES uses 56bit keys, A 13
Linux Dictionary which can be cracked in just a few minutes (in
the year 2001). In contrast, AES supports 128bit keys (as well as
192bit and 256bit). Whereas both DES and AES are fundamentally
blockciphers, AES is also designed to be an efficient streamcipher
and hash algorithm. Whereas DES was designed to be hardware based
(software implementations are much slower), AES has been designed
to be efficient in both software and hardware. In particular,
implementations in ANSI C, Java, and x86 assembly language were
important. Another important criteria was the ability for the
algorithm to work within smartcards with slow CPUs and limited
memory. Key point: The NIST director in charge of selecting the AES
algorithm says: "If Moore's law continues and quantum computing
doesn't manifest itself, then I think this system will have a good
30 year run". Misconception: AES does not replace DES. In the
1980s, DES was the most used encryption algorithm. However, due to
length of time it took the government to come up with a replacement
standard, other encryption algorithms became widely used, such as
RC2, RC4, Blowfish, IDEA, and Triple DES. Moreover, crypto has
became very "pluggable", with many products supporting numerous
simultaneous encryption algorithms. From HackingLexicon AI /AI/ n.
Abbreviation for `Artificial Intelligence', so common that the full
form is almost never written or spoken among hackers. From Jargon
Dictionary ALSA The ALSA sound driver was originally written as a
replacement for the Linux kernel sound for Gravis UltraSound (GUS)
cards. As this GUS replacement proved to be a success, the author
started the ALSA project for a generic driver for several sound
chips, with fully modularized design. It is compatible with the
OSS/Free and OSS/Linux sound drivers (the drivers in the kernel),
but has its own interface that is even better than the OSS drivers.
A list of features can be found at
http://www.alsaproject.org/intro.html. The main page of the ALSA
project is http://www.alsaproject.org/ From ALSAHOWTO The ALSA
sound drivers have proven to be such a success that they have
replaced the OSS drivers in the Linux kernel. From Binh ALT Linux
LWN distribution survey completed May 3, 2002. ALT Linux got its
start as a LinuxMandrake Russian Edition Spring 2001. Designed to
be a universal distribution, suitable for server organization, for
user workstations and for software development, ALT Linux has
diverged from its roots and split into several projects, all with
the same code base. For example, there's Castle, a secured,
RSBACenabled, server distribution; and ALT Linux Junior, a
singledisk distribution for home computers, designed especially for
beginners, easy to install and use. The unstable Sisyphus branch
changes daily. ALT Linux Master 2.2 was released March 7, 2003. ALT
Linux Junior 2.2 (Plum) was released March 26, 2003. From LWN
Distribution List ANSI (American National Standards Institute) A
standards body made up of industry representatives. For infosec
purposes, the two interesting areas are the X9 standards for
financial/banking, and the X12 standards for EDI (also governing
healthcare transactions). Contrast: ANSI is the American
representative to the ISO. ANSI is made up of industry, whereas
NIST specifies standards only for use within government. From
HackingLexicon ANSI /an'see/ 1. n. [techspeak] The American
National Standards Institute. ANSI, along with the International
Organization for Standards (ISO), standardized the C programming
language (see K&R, Classic C), and promulgates many other
important software standards. 2. n. [techspeak] A terminal may be
said to be `ANSI' if it meets the ANSI X3.64 standard for terminal
control. Unfortunately, this standard was both overcomplicated and
too permissive. It has been retired and replaced by the ECMA48
standard, which shares both flaws. 3. n. [BBS jargon] The set of
screenpainting codes that most MSDOS and Amiga computers accept.
This comes from the ANSI.SYS device driver that must be loaded on
an MSDOS computer to view such codes. Unfortunately, neither DOS
ANSI nor the BBS ANSIs derived from it exactly match the ANSI X3.64
terminal standard. For example, the ESC[1m A 14
Linux Dictionary code turns on the bold highlight on large
machines, but in IBM PC/MSDOS ANSI, it turns on `intense' (bright)
colors. Also, in BBSland, the term `ANSI' is often used to imply
that a particular computer uses or can emulate the IBM highhalf
character set from MSDOS. Particular use depends on context.
Occasionally, the vanilla ASCII character set is used with the
color codes, but on BBSs, ANSI and `IBM characters' tend to go
together. From Jargon Dictionary ANSI C a revision of C, adding
function prototypes, structure passing, structure assignment and
standardised library functions. From Linux Guide @FirstLinux ANSI
standard /an'see stan'd*rd/ The ANSI standard usage of `ANSI
standard' refers to any practice which is typical or broadly done.
It can also be applied in a jovial context in which everyone does
something in the same way but it is not quite regulation. For
example: ANSI standard shaking of a laser printer cartridge to get
extra life from it, or the ANSI standard word tripling in names of
usenet alt groups. From Jargon Dictionary APM (Advanced Power
Management) An industry standard for allowing the system processor
and various components to enter powersaving modes, including
suspend, sleep and off. APM software is especially important for
mobile devices, because it saves battery power. From Igloss ARJ A
popular file compression/archival tool, available for UNIX/Linux,
DOS/Windows, and other operating systems. Files compressed in this
manner typically have .arj or .ar extensions. From Igloss ARM Linux
ARM Linux is a port of the Linux Operating System to ARM processor
based machines mainly by Russell King with contributions from
others. From LWN Distribution List ARMM n. [acronym, `Automated
Retroactive Minimal Moderation'] A Usenet cancelbot created by Dick
Depew of Munroe Falls, Ohio. ARMM was intended to automatically
cancel posts from anonymousposting sites. Unfortunately, the
robot's recognizer for anonymous postings triggered on its own
automaticallygenerated control messages! Transformed by this stroke
of programming ineptitude into a monster of Frankensteinian
proportions, it broke loose on the night of March 31, 1993 and
proceeded to spam news.admin.policy with a recursive explosion of
over 200 messages. ARMM's bug produced a recursive cascade of
messages each of which mechanically added text to the ID and
Subject and some other headers of its parent. This produced a flood
of messages in which each header took up several screens and each
message ID and subject line got longer and longer and longer.
Reactions varied from amusement to outrage. The pathological
messages crashed at least one mail system, and upset people paying
line charges for their Usenet feeds. One poster described the ARMM
debacle as "instant Usenet history" (also establishing the term
despew), and it has since been widely cited as a cautionary example
of the havoc the combination of good intentions and incompetence
can wreak on a network. Compare Great Worm; sorcerer's apprentice
mode. See also software laser, network meltdown. From Jargon
Dictionary ARP ARP is a protocol used with TCP/IP to resolve
addresses. The TCP/IP stack used to transmit data across the
Internet is independent from the Ethernet used to shuttle data
between local machines. Thus, when machine needs to send an IP
packet to a nearby machine, it broadcasts the IP address on the
local Ethernet asking for the corresponding Ethernet address. The
machine who owns the address responds, at which point the IP packet
in question is sent to that Ethernet address. Key point: By
sniffing ARP packets off the wire, you can discover a lot of stuff
going on. This is especially true of cablemodem and DSL segments.
Since ARP packets are broadcasts, you aren't technically breaking
your user's agreement by sniffing. Key point: You can spoof ARP
requests and/or responses in order to redirect traffic through your
machine. From HackingLexicon ARP A 15
Linux Dictionary a TCP/IP protocol used to obtain a station's
physical address from its logical IP address. ARP requests are
broadcast onto the network. From Linux Guide @FirstLinux ARP
redirect A tool that is part of the standard hacker's toolkit, ARP
redirect will redirect Internet traffic from a local neighbor
through your own machine allowing you to sniff it. From
HackingLexicon ARPAnet A wide area network (WAN), created in 1969
with funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA).
Undergoing constant research and development in the earls to
midl970s, ARPAnet served as the testbed for the development of
TCP/IP (the protocols that make the Internet possible). A major
goal of the ARPAnet project was to increase the military's command
and control capability enabling communication across a variety of
physically dissimilar media, including satellites. An allied goal
was to create a robust network capable of withstanding outages,
such as those that might result from a nuclear exchange. ARPAnet
met these objectives, but it also surprised its creators: It was
found in short order that most ARPAnet users preferred to use the
network for communication, such as electronic mail and discussion
groups. Initially, the ARPAnet was available only to government
research institutes and to universities holding Department of
Defense (DoD) research contracts. In 1983, ARPAnet was divided into
a highsecurity military network (Milnet) and an ARPAanet that was
recast as a research and development network. From QUECID ARSIG
ARSIG is a GNU Linux distribution designed especially for diskless
routers, where the main (primary) bootup device is compactflash
card. The goal is to make the "static" part of the operating system
lay on the CF card, mounted as readonly. All other parts of the OS
that need readwrite access are mounted in RAM. ARSIG is based on
Openwall GNU/*/Linux (Owl). Initial Freshmeat announcement, version
1.0_pre01 (PHDS), was released January 4, 2003. From LWN
Distribution List ASCII /as'kee/ n. [originally an acronym
(American Standard Code for Information Interchange) but now merely
conventional] The predominant character set encoding of presentday
computers. The standard version uses 7 bits for each character,
whereas most earlier codes (including early drafts of ASCII prior
to June 1961) used fewer. This change allowed the inclusion of
lowercase letters a major win but it did not provide for accented
letters or any other letterforms not used in English (such as the
German sharpS or the aeligature which is a letter in, for example,
Norwegian). It could be worse, though. It could be much worse. See
EBCDIC to understand how. A history of ASCII and its ancestors is
at http://www.wps.com/texts/codes/index.html. Computers are much
pickier and less flexible about spelling than humans; thus, hackers
need to be very precise when talking about characters, and have
developed a considerable amount of verbal shorthand for them. Every
character has one or more names some formal, some concise, some
silly. Common jargon names for ASCII characters are collected here.
See also individual entries for bang, excl, open, ques, semi,
shriek, splat, twiddle, and YuShiang Whole Fish. This list derives
from revision 2.3 of the Usenet ASCII pronunciation guide. Single
characters are listed in ASCII order; character pairs are sorted in
by first member. For each character, common names are given in
rough order of popularity, followed by names that are reported but
rarely seen; official ANSI/CCITT names are surrounded by brokets: .
Square brackets mark the particularly silly names introduced by
INTERCAL. The abbreviations "l/r" and "o/c" stand for left/right
and "open/close" respectively. Ordinary parentheticals provide some
usage information. ! Common: bang; pling; excl; not; shriek;
ballbat; . Rare: factorial; exclam; smash; cuss; boing; yell; wow;
hey; wham; eureka; [sparkspot]; soldier, control. " Common: double
quote; quote. Rare: literal mark; doubleglitch; ; ; dirk;
[rabbitears]; double prime. # Common: number sign; pound; pound
sign; hash; sharp; crunch; hex; [mesh]. Rare: grid; crosshatch;
octothorpe; flash; , pigpen; tictactoe; scratchmark; thud; thump;
splat. $ Common: dollar; . Rare: currency symbol; buck; cash;
string (from BASIC); escape (when used as the echo of ASCII ESC);
ding; cache; [big money]. % Common: A 16
Linux Dictionary percent; ; mod; grapes. Rare: [doubleohseven].
& Common: ; amp; amper; and, and sign. Rare: address (from C);
reference (from C++); andpersand; bitand; background (from sh(1));
pretzel. [INTERCAL called this `ampersand'; what could be sillier?]
' Common: single quote; quote; . Rare: prime; glitch; tick; irk;
pop; [spark]; ; . ( ) Common: l/r paren; l/r parenthesis;
left/right; open/close; paren/thesis; o/c paren; o/c parenthesis;
l/r parenthesis; l/r banana. Rare: so/already; lparen/rparen; ; o/c
round bracket, l/r round bracket, [wax/wane];
parenthisey/unparenthisey; l/r ear. * Common: star; [splat]; .
Rare: wildcard; gear; dingle; mult; spider; aster; times; twinkle;
glob (see glob); Nathan Hale. + Common: ; add. Rare: cross;
[intersection]. , Common: . Rare: ; [tail]. Common: dash; ; . Rare:
[worm]; option; dak; bithorpe. Common: dot; point; ; . Rare: radix
point; full stop; [spot]. / Common: slash; stroke; ; forward slash.
Rare: diagonal; solidus; over; slak; virgule; [slat]. : Common: .
Rare: dots; [twospot]. ; Common: ; semi. Rare: weenie; [hybrid],
pitthwong. < > Common: ; bra/ket; l/r angle; l/r angle
bracket; l/r broket. Rare: from/{into, towards}; read from/write
to; suck/blow; comesfrom/gozinta; in/out; crunch/zap (all from
UNIX); tic/tac; [angle/right angle]. = Common: ; gets; takes. Rare:
quadrathorpe; [halfmesh]. ? Common: query; ; ques. Rare: quiz;
whatmark; [what]; wildchar; huh; hook; buttonhook; hunchback. @
Common: at sign; at; strudel. Rare: each; vortex; whorl;
[whirlpool]; cyclone; snail; ape; cat; rose; cabbage; . V Rare:
[book]. [ ] Common: l/r square bracket; l/r bracket; ;
bracket/unbracket. Rare: square/unsquare; [U turn/U turn back]. \
Common: backslash, hack, whack; escape (from C/UNIX); reverse
slash; slosh; backslant; backwhack. Rare: bash; ; reversed virgule;
[backslat]. ^ Common: hat; control; uparrow; caret; . Rare: xor
sign, chevron; [shark (or sharkfin)]; to the (`to the power of');
fang; pointer (in Pascal). _ Common: ; underscore; underbar; under.
Rare: score; backarrow; skid; [flatworm]. ` Common: backquote; left
quote; left single quote; open quote; ; grave. Rare: backprime;
[backspark]; unapostrophe; birk; blugle; back tick; back glitch;
push; ; quasiquote. { } Common: o/c brace; l/r brace; l/r squiggly;
l/r squiggly bracket/brace; l/r curly bracket/brace; . Rare:
brace/unbrace; curly/uncurly; leftit/rytit; l/r squirrelly;
[embrace/bracelet]. A balanced pair of these may be called
`curlies'. | Common: bar; or; orbar; vbar; pipe; vertical bar.
Rare: ; gozinta; thru; pipesinta (last three from UNIX); [spike]. ~
Common: ; squiggle; twiddle; not. Rare: approx; wiggle; swung dash;
enyay; [sqiggle (sic)]. The pronunciation of # as `pound' is common
in the U.S. but a bad idea; Commonwealth Hackish has its own,
rather more apposite use of `pound sign' (confusingly, on British
keyboards the pound graphic happens to replace #; thus Britishers
sometimes call # on a U.S.ASCII keyboard `pound', compounding the
American error). The U.S. usage derives from an oldfashioned
commercial practice of using a # suffix to tag pound weights on
bills of lading. The character is usually pronounced `hash' outside
the U.S. There are more culture wars over the correct pronunciation
of this character than any other, which has led to the ha ha only
serious suggestion that it be pronounced `shibboleth' (see Judges
12:6 in an Old Testament or Tanakh). The `uparrow' name for
circumflex and `leftarrow' name for underline are historical relics
from archaic ASCII (the 1963 version), which had these graphics in
those character positions rather than the modern punctuation
characters. The `swung dash' or `approximation' sign is not quite
the same as tilde in typeset material but the ASCII tilde serves
for both (compare angle brackets). Some other common usages cause
odd overlaps. The #, $, >, and & characters, for example,
are all pronounced "hex" in different communities because various
assemblers use them as a prefix tag for hexadecimal constants (in
particular, # in many assemblerprogramming cultures, $ in the 6502
world, > at Texas Instruments, and & on the BBC Micro,
Sinclair, and some Z80 machines). See also splat. The inability of
ASCII text to correctly represent any of the world's other major
languages makes the designers' choice of 7 bits look more and more
like a serious misfeature as the use of international networks
continues to increase (see software rot). Hardware and software
from the U.S. still tends to embody the assumption that ASCII is
the universal character set and that characters have A 17
Linux Dictionary 7 bits; this is a major irritant to people who
want to use a character set suited to their own languages.
Perversely, though, efforts to solve this problem by proliferating
`national' character sets produce an evolutionary pressure to use a
smaller subset common to all those in use. From Jargon Dictionary
ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) This is
the defacto worldwide standard for the code numbers used by
computers to represent all the upper and lowercase Latin letters,
numbers, punctuation, etc. There are 128 standard ASCII codes each
of which can be represented by a 7 digit binary number: 0000000
through 1111111. From Matisse ASCII (American Standard Code for
Information Interchange) a standard code used for representing
information on computer systems and networks. It uses the printing
and nonprinting characters that can be generated by the keyboard.
Since 7 bits are available to represent each character it is
possible to represent a total of 128 different characters. From
Linux Guide @FirstLinux ASPLinux ASPLinux is a Russian distribution
from a multinational company based in Singapore. The Red Hat based
ASPLinux GNU/Linux distribution, includes all components for
creation of a high perfomance Internet/Intranet server or powerful
multimedia workstation. ASP 7.3 (vostok) was released August 13,
2002. From LWN Distribution List AT command set (Hayes command set)
Today's modems are controlled by the old Hayes "AT" command set. In
order to dial the phone number 5551212 using a modem, you simply
send the string "ATDT5551212" to the modem. The "D" following the
"AT" means to "Dial", and the "T" means to use "Tone" dialing
(rather than "P" for "Pulse" dialing). The command "ATH0" means to
hang up the modem. Key point: One of the juvenile tricks people
play is to cause people to hang up their own modem. Once the modem
connects, it goes into a different mode where it no longer accepts
AT commands. However, a user can switch back to the command mode by
sending the characters "+++" to the modem. Therefore, if somebody
can remotely trick your PC into sending "+++ATH0", then your modem
will hang up. One way of doing this is with the ping program that
sends and ICMP echo to the victim, which then replies with the same
contents. E.g.: ping p 2b2b2b415448300d victim The most popular
exploits for this are spoofed ICMP pings, but it can be exploited
in any number of ways. For example, one may include the following
in an HTML webpage: From HackingLexicon ATAPI AT Attachment Packet
Interface a standard that allows people to connect tape drives and
CDROMs to Enhanced IDE controllers. From Linux Guide @FirstLinux
ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode. High Speed (up to 155 Mbps), high
bandwidth, lowdelay, transport technology, integrating multiple
data types (voice, video, and data), International
Telecommunications Union (ITU) has selected ATM as the basis for
the future broadband network because of its flexibility and
suitability for both transmission and switching. It may be used in
the phone and computer networks of the future. It is also a
multiplexed information transfer technique of sending data in
irregular time intervals using a code such as ASCII. ATM allows
most modern computers to communicate with one another easily. From
Glossary of Distance Education and Internet Terminology AUTHORS
List of people who contributed to or wrote a package or document.
From RuteUsersGuide AVI Audio Video Interleaved: a proprietary
video format developed by Microsoft. It interleaves standard
waveform audio and digital video frames (bitmaps) and is a popular
format. Popular Linux programs such as xanim support AVI. From
Linux Guide @FirstLinux AX.25 A 18
Linux Dictionary a Packet Radio Protocol that offers both
connected and connectionless modes of operation, and is used either
by itself for pointpoint links, or to carry other protocols such as
TCP/IP and NetRom. From Linux Guide @FirstLinux AbulEdu AbulEdu is
a Mandrakebased distribution for primary schools. It is currently
in French but most of the tools can be translated. An AbulEdu
server can handle Mac (netatalk), Windows (samba), GNU/Linux and X
terminal (with LTSP) clients. The server acts as a central gateway
for Web, mail, and printing, and facilitates the management of
classes, pupils, and teachers. Everybody can publish Web pages on
an intranet using Apache and all administration tasks are performed
using a browser. The result is that a teacher who is not a computer
specialist can install and manage a school network. Stable version
1.0.7II was released May 26, 2003. Development version 1.0.11 beta
4 was released October 7, 2002. From LWN Distribution List Access
Control List (access, ACL) Controlling access not only the system
in general, but also resources within the system. For example,
firewalls can be configured to allow access to different portions
of the network for different users. Likewise, even after you log
onto a file server, the server may still block access to certain
files. Key point: An Access Control List (ACL) is used to list
those accounts that have access to the resource that the list
applies to. When talking about firewalls, the ACL implies the list
of IP addresses that have access to which ports and systems through
the firewall. When talking about WinNT, the ACL implies the list of
users that can access a specific file or directory on NTFS.
Contrast: Discretionary Access Control is the ability to have fine
grained control over who has access to what resources.
Misconception: Many people believe that firewall IP address rules
or IEEE 802.11 MAC address rules form robust ACLs. However, since
neither IP addresses or MAC addresses provide robust
authentication, such ACLs provide only a weak form of security.
When these socalled ACLs are relied upon for security, they
frequently lead to compromises as people spoof their IP or forge
their MAC address. From HackingLexicon Account Name Same as Login
ID, User ID, or User Name. The name assigned to a user on a
UNIX/Linux system. Multiple users can be set up on a system with
unique account names, each with varying access (permission) levels.
After Linux installation, account names are assigned by the
Superuser, or root operator. From Igloss Ada n. A Pascaldescended
language that was at one time made mandatory for Department of
Defense software projects by the Pentagon. Hackers are nearly
unanimous in observing that, technically, it is precisely what one
might expect given that kind of endorsement by fiat; designed by
committee, crockish, difficult to use, and overall a disastrous,
multibilliondollar boondoggle (one common description wss "The PL/I
of the 1980s"). Hackers find Ada's exceptionhandling and
interprocess communication features particularly hilarious. Ada
Lovelace (the daughter of Lord Byron who became the world's first
programmer while cooperating with Charles Babbage on the design of
his mechanical computing engines in the mid1800s) would almost
certainly blanch at the use to which her name has latterly been
put; the kindest thing that has been said about it is that there is
probably a good small language screaming to get out from inside its
vast, elephantine bulk. From Jargon Dictionary Adamantix Adamantix,
formerly known as TrustedDebian, aims to create a highly secure but
usable Linux platform. To accomplish this, the project will use
currently available security solutions for Linux (like kernel
patches, compiler patches, security related programs and
techniques) and knit these together to a highly secure Linux
platform. The initial release, version 0.9, became available March
18, 2003. Version 1.0.1 was released June 12, 2003. A 'secured'
distribution. From LWN Distribution List AfterStep
A
19
Linux Dictionary One of several user interfaces (window
managers), AfterStep makes Linux look and feel much like NeXTSTEP,
with enhancements. For more on AfterStep, go to www.afterstep.org.
(Also, see Enlightenment, GNOME, KDE, and X Window System.) From
Igloss AgendaVR there are two versions of the VR3d. One was
released in December 2000 in the U.S., and the "Second Edition" was
released in January 2001 in the U.S. and in Germany. Agenda
Computing was scheduled to complete development in the spring of
2002, but their website seems to have disappeared [July 22, 2002].
Handhelds/PDA based distribution. From LWN Distribution List
Akkerman, Wichert one of the key developers of the Debian
distribution. Wichert has also written important Linux programs
such as strace and APT. From Linux Guide @FirstLinux Alcolix
alcolix is a minimal Linux rescue distribution with the goals of
being small, compatible, and very usable. It has a cozy shell and a
multitude of partition rescue/editing tools, all based on uptodate
releases (e.g., 2.4.x kernel with USB support). It uses cpio.bz2
data disks and has a full GRUB bootloader, memtest86, and more.
Version 2.4.20 BETA3 was released June 16, 2003. A 'special
purpose/mini' distribution. From LWN Distribution List Aleph
ARMlinux Aleph One provides welldocumented Linux distributions for
various ARMbased systems. LWN distribution survey results for
February 6, 2000. From LWN Distribution List Alias A secondary or
symbolic name for a file, a collection of data, or a computer
device. In a spreadsheet, a range name, such as Income, is an alias
for a range, such as A3..K3. In networks, group aliases provide a
handy way to send electronic mailed two or more people
simultaneously. From QUECID Alindis A comprehensive guide to
building a GNU/Linux distribution. Initial version 0.0.1 was
released January 2, 2002. Version 0.1.0 was released July 18, 2002.
From LWN Distribution List Allison, Jeremy one of the lead
developers of the Samba Windows fileandprintsharing software. From
Linux Guide @FirstLinux Allman, Eric the creator of sendmail one of
the most important pieces of software ever created by the
OpenSource community. Eric has established Sendmail, Inc., which
produces both opensourced and proprietary versions of sendmail.
From Linux Guide @FirstLinux Alpha a family of advanced RISCbased,
64bit CPUs from Digital (now Compaq). Alpha's were introduced back
in 1992. From Linux Guide @FirstLinux AntiAliasing a method used to
better define higher resolution objects in lower resolution. It is
a term often used for fonts. From Linux Guide @FirstLinux Apache
Apache is the leading internet web server, with over 60% market
share, according to the Netcraft survey. Several key factors have
contributed to Apache's success: The Apache license. It is an open
source, BSDlike license that allows for both commercial and
noncommercial uses of Apache. Talented community of developers with
a variety of backgrounds and an open development process based on
technical merits. Modular architecture. Apache users can easily add
functionality or tailor Apache to their specific enviroment.
Portable: Apache runs on nearly all flavors of Unix (and Linux),
Windows, BeOs, mainframes... Robustness and security. Many
commercial vendors have adopted Apachebased solutions for their
products, including Oracle, Red Hat and IBM. In addition, Covalent
provides addon modules and 24x7 support for Apache. The following
websites use Apache or derivatives. Chances are that if Apache is
good enough for them, it is also good enough for you. A 20
Linux Dictionary Amazon.com Yahoo! W3 Consortium Financial Times
Network solutions MP3.com Stanford From the Apache website: The
Apache Project is a collaborative software development effort aimed
at creating a robust, commercialgrade, featureful, and
freelyavailable source code implementation of an HTTP (Web) server.
The Apache project has grown beyond building just a web server into
other critical server side technologies like Java or XML. The
Apache Software Foundation, described in the next section, serves
as an umbrella for these projects. From Apache Overview HOWTO
Append Symbol The > keyboard character, repeated (i.e.,
>>). It is often used to send the output from a command to a
text file, appending the data to the end of the file, rather than
replacing the existing content. For example, ls a >>
output.txt sends the current directory list to a file called
output.txt, and adds it to the end of the file. Repeating the
command will continue to add new data to the end of the file.
(Also, see Piping Symbol and Redirection Symbol.) From Igloss
Applet A small Java program that can be embedded in an HTML page.
Applets differ from fullfledged Java applications in that they are
not allowed to access certain resources on the local computer, such
as files and serial devices (modems, printers, etc.), and are
prohibited from communicating with most other computers across a
network. The common rule is that an applet can only make an
Internet connection to the computer from which the applet was sent.
From Matisse Application Program Interface (API) System software
that provides a complete set of functions and resources on which
programmers can draw to create interface features, such as pull
down menus, command names, dialog boxes, keyboard commands, and
windows. In network systems, an API establishes how programes use
various network features. From QUECID Arabeyes Project Arabeyes is
a Meta project that is aimed at fully supporting the Arabic
language in the Unix/Linux environment. It is designed to be a
central location to standardize the Arabization process. Arabeyes
relies on voluntary contributions by computer professionals and
enthusiasts all over the world. From LWN Distribution List
Arcangeli, Andrea employed by SuSE as a kernel developer, Andrea
has created the IKD kernel debugging tool and the workaround for a
famous TCP incompatibility between Solaris and Linux. From Linux
Guide @FirstLinux Arch Linux Arch Linux is an i686optimized Linux
distribution. It is lightweight and contains the latest stable
versions of software. Packages are in .tar.gz format and are
tracked by a package manager that is designed to allow easy package
upgrades. Arch is designed to be streamlined while allowing for a
customized configuration, with newer features such as reiserfs/ext3
and devfs. The inital version, 0.1, was released March 11, 2002.
Arch 0.4 (Dragon) was released December 18, 2002. Arch Linux
released Pacman 2.1 (package manager) on August 22, 2002. From LWN
Distribution List Archie A tool (software) for finding files stored
on anonymous FTP sites. You need to know the exact file name or a
substring of it. By 1999 Archie had been almost completely replaced
by webbased search engines. Back when FTP was the main way people
moved files over the Internet archie was quite popular. From
Matisse Archive A single large file containing multiple files,
usually compressed to save storage space. Often created to
facilitate transferring between computers. Popular archival formats
include ARJ, TAR, ZIP and ZOO. Also, to create such an archive
file. From Igloss Argument Words, phrases or numbers that you enter
on the same command line as a command or a statement to expand or
modify how that command or statement operates. From QUECID A 21
Linux Dictionary Ark Linux Ark Linux is a Linux distribution
designed especially for desktop use, primarily for people without
prior Linux experience. Its main goal is ease of use, and the
inclusion of many tools end users will need. Ark Linux is based on
Red Hat 7.3 / 8.0, with KDE. Initial Freshmeat version
1.00.alpha7.1 was released March 14, 2003. From LWN Distribution
List Assembler A program that transforms assembly language program
into machine language so the computer can execute the program. From
QUECID Astaro Security Linux A firewall and VPN product based on
the 2.4 Linux kernel. Available for free download but not
completely open source. There are several branches. Version 3.200
(beta) was released June 4, 2002. A stable 3.217 (for i386) was
released April 8, 2003. Beta version 3.391 was released January 30,
2003. The stable 2.x tree is at version 2.031, released November
15, 2002. There is also a version 2.027 for Sun Cobalt was released
July 3, 2002. Stable version 4.008 was released June 12, 2003. A
'secured' distribution. From LWN Distribution List Asynchronous A
lack of synchronization. A method of transmitting data over a
network using a start bit at the beginning of a character and a
stop bit at the end. The time intervak between characters may be
varying lengths. In video, a signal is asynchronous when its timing
differs from that of the system reference signal. From Glossary of
Distance Education and Internet Terminology At Run a command once
at some future time. From RuteUsersGuide Audio Bookshelf Including
the Enigma Audio Bookshelf could be stretching the definition of a
Linux distribution more than a little. But this is a bootable CD
product, which contains enough of a Linux operating system to turn
a PC into a book reader. Any PC meeting the requirements can be
turned into a Linux based book reader, regardless of the OS
installed on the hard drive. Read the book yourself, or have the
computer read to you. A 'special purpose/mini' distribution. From
LWN Distribution List Aurora Sparc Project This Sparc Linux
distribution is based on Red Hat 7.3. Build 0.2 was announced on
December 4, 2001. Build 0.4 (Titanium) was released September 26,
2002. Build 0.42 (Douglas) was released October 4, 2002. From LWN
Distribution List Aurox Linux Aurox Linux is an international
distribution, hailing from Poland. It is available in several
european countries, in different language versions, including
Polish, Czech, German, French and Spanish. Aurox is based on Red
Hat, with Aurox 9.0 the most recent offering. Added to list June
11, 2003. From LWN Distribution List Authoritative for a Domain I
have emphasized that name servers only hold information for their
own domains. Any other information they may have about another
domain is cached, temporary data that has an expiration date
attached to it. The domain that a name server has information about
is said to be the domain that a name server is authoritative for.
Alternatively we say: ``a name server is authoritative for the
domain.'' For instance, the server ns2.cranzgot.co.za is
authoritative for the domain cranzgot.co.za. Hence, lookups from
anywhere on the Internet having the domain cranzgot.co.za
ultimately are the responsibility of ns2.cranzgot.co.za, and
originate (albeit through a long series of caches) from the host
ns2.cranzgot.co.za. From RuteUsersGuide Awk (Aho, Weinberger, and
Kernighan) A programming language useful for its patternmatching
syntax, and often used for data retrieval and data transformation.
A GNU version is called Gawk. From Igloss aLinux
A
22
Linux Dictionary aLinux is an x86 floppybased minidistribution,
where assembly code meets Linux kernel. It contains only programs
written in assembly language. It is extemely small, yet functional,
and provides HTTP and FTP services outofthebox. Initial version
0.17 was released August 17, 2002. A floppybased distribution. From
LWN Distribution List a2p Awk to Perl translator From whatis a2ps
GNU a2ps 'Anything to PostScript' converter and prettyprinter a2ps
converts files into PostScript for printing or viewing. It uses a
nice default format, usually two pages on each physical page,
borders surrounding pages, headers with useful information (page
number, printing date, file name or supplied header), line
numbering, symbol substitution as well as pretty printing for a
wide range of programming languages. Historically, a2ps started as
a text to PostScript converter, but thanks to powerful delegations
it is able to let you use it for any kind of files, ie it can also
digest manual pages, dvi files, texinfo, .... Among the other most
noticeable features of a2ps are: various encodings (all the Latins
and others), various fonts (automatic font down loading), various
medias, various printer interfaces, various output styles, various
programming languages, various helping applications, and various
spoken languages. From Debian 3.0r0 APT a2ps The a2ps filter
converts text and other types of files to PostScript format. A2ps
has prettyprinting capabilities and includes support for a wide
number of programming languages, encodings (ISO Latins, Cyrillic,
etc.), and media. From Redhat 8.0 RPM a52dec Utilities to extract
and decode ATCS A/52 streams Utilities to extract and decode ATCS
A/52 streams. The A/52 standard is used in a variety of
applications, including digital television and DVD. It is also
known as AC3. From Debian 3.0r0 APT aa3d An ASCII art stereogram
generator This program generates the well known and popular random
dot stereograms in ASCII art. From Debian 3.0r0 APT aalibbin sample
programs using aalib AAlib is a portable ascii art graphics
library. Internally, it works like a graphics display, but the
output is rendered into gorgeous platform independent ascii
graphics. This package contains a few sample programs that use
aalib. From Debian 3.0r0 APT aatv A program to watch TV in a
textbased console aatv is a program which allows you to watch TV in
a textbased console, i.e. in a virtual console or in an xterm. From
Debian 3.0r0 APT abc2ps Translates ABC music description files to
PostScript This is the Debian port of the abc2ps program by Michael
Methfessel. The program translates tunes written in the ABC format
to PostScript, which can then be viewed using Ghostview et al. or
printed on a PostScript printer or through Ghostscript. It supports
various semistandard extensions to the ABC standard, such as
multiple voices and staves. From Debian 3.0r0 APT abcde A Better CD
Encoder A frontend program to cdparanoia, wget, cddiscid, id3, and
your favorite Ogg or MP3 encoder (defaults to oggenc). Grabs an
entire CD and converts each track to Ogg or MP3, then comments or
ID3tags each file, with one command. From Debian 3.0r0 APT abcmidi
A converter from ABC to MIDI format and back This package contains
the programs `abc2midi' and `midi2abc', which convert from the abc
musical notation format to standard MIDI format and viceversa. They
can generate accompaniment from guitar chords in the abc file, as
well as insert various MIDI events; the MIDItoabc translation tries
to figure out bars, triplets and accidentals on its own. The
package also contains `abc2abc' (an abc prettyprinter/transposer)
and `mftext' (a program A 23
Linux Dictionary that will dump a MIDI file as text). The
programs in this package are based on the `midifilelib'
distribution available from http://www.harmonycentral.com/MIDI/.
From Debian 3.0r0 APT abcmidiyaps Yet another ABC to PostScript
converter This program translates tunes written in the ABC format
to PostScript, which can then be viewed on screen or printed. It is
essentially a (nonexclusive) alternative to abc2ps, being based on
the abc2ps PostScript code together with the ABC parser from the
abcmidi package. From Debian 3.0r0 APT abicheck binary
compatibility checking tool ABIcheck is a tool for checking an
application's compliance with a library's defined Application
Binary Interface (ABI). It relies on ABI definition information
contained in the library. Example definitions are given for GNOME
and glibc. From Debian 3.0r0 APT abiword WYSIWYG word processor
AbiWord is the first application of a complete, open source office
suite. The upstream source includes crossplatform support for
Win32, BeOS, and QNX as well as GTK+ on Unix. AbiWord is still
being developed. It's quite usable but not yet full featured or
polished. For many applications, however, it should prove effective
and efficient. This program includes support for reading Microsoft
Word files, RTF files, and many other foreign file formats.
Natively, it uses a custom XMLbased file format. From Debian 3.0r0
APT abook A textbased ncurses address book application. abook is a
textbased ncurses address book application. It provides many
different fields of user info. abook is designed for use with mutt,
but can be used independently. From Debian 3.0r0 APT absolute
pathname A pathname that explicitly identifies all directories from
the root directory to an individual file. For example, pathname
/home/linus/kernel/test refers to a file named test in directory
kernel, which belongs to directory linus, which belongs to
directory home, which belongs to the root directory /. From Linux
Guide @FirstLinux abuse Crack dot Com's Abuse action game. Abuse is
a side scrolling shootemup action game from Crack dot Com. This
package contains the Abuse game engine, in X and full screen svga
versions. It requires a mouse. This package is obsolete and will be
removed later (if you still need it, contact the maintainer).
Please use abusesdl instead. From Debian 3.0r0 APT access check
user's permissions for a file From whatis access determine whether
a file can be accessed From whatis access control (access) Access
control refers to controlling access by a user to a computer
system, or data on that system. In formal terms, a "subject" (e.g.
a user) attempts to access the "object" (e.g. system or data). An
access control system will evaluate the security levels of the
subject and object in order to see if access is permitted. Example:
A simple example is the case where you enter a username and
password in order to log onto the computer. Contrast: mandatory
access control The system gives users "clearance levels", and
assigns sensitivity levels to information. Therefore, if you only
have "secret" clearance level, you cannot access "topsecret"
information, but you can access "secret" or "confidential"
information. See: BellLaPadula Model for more information.
discretionary access control This system assigns subjects (users)
to one or more groups. An object (system or file) contains a DACL
(discretionary access control list) enumeration which users and
groups may access the object. See: Access Control List for more
information. Key point: There are different kinds of access. Read
access means that somebody can read information, whereas write
access implies that that somebody can change the data. For example,
you can get a copy of your credit report and read it, but you can't
necessarily change the data. From HackingLexicon A 24
Linux Dictionary access permissions a set of permissions
associated with every file and directory that determine who can
read it, write to it, or execute it. Only the owner of the file (or
the superuser) can change these permissions. From Linux Guide
@FirstLinux accessdb dumps the content of a mandb database in a
human readable format. From whatis account a cominbation of login
and password which is normally created by the system administrator.
The creation of an account includes the assignment of a home
directory. From Linux Guide @FirstLinux acct The GNU Accounting
utilities. The GNU Accounting utilities `ac', `accton', `last',
`lastcomm', and `sa' add login and process accounting support to
Debian Linux. "Login accounting" provides summaries of system
resource usage based on connect time, and "process accounting"
provides summaries based on the commands executed on the system.
The 'last' command is provided by the Debian sysvinit package and
not included here. From Debian 3.0r0 APT aceofpenguins
Solitairegames with penguinlook. From the author's intro.html: "The
Ace of Penguins is a set of Unix/X solitaire games based on the
ones available for Windows(tm) but with a number of enhancements
that make my wife like my versions better :)" The package consists
of the games Pegged, Minesweeper, Solitaire, Taipei (together with
a level editor), Golf, Mastermind, Merlin and Freecell. From Debian
3.0r0 APT acfax Receive faxes using your radio and sound card acfax
allows you to receive faxes using your sound card. Typically you
might use it to decode faxes sent over HF radio or from satellites.
From Debian 3.0r0 APT achilles An artificial life and evolution
simulator Achilles is an artificial life and evolution simulator
that uses Hebbian neural networks and OpenGL/SDL to simulate life
in a simplified environment. It is based on Larry Yaeger's
PolyWorld. From Debian 3.0r0 APT acidlab Analysis Console for
Intrusion Databases The Analysis Console for Intrusion Databases
(ACID) is a PHPbased analysis engine to search and process a
database of security events generated by various IDSes, firewalls,
and network monitoring tools. The features currently include: o
Querybuilder and search interface for finding alerts matching on
alert meta information (e.g. signature, detection time) as well as
the underlying network evidence (e.g. source/destination address,
ports, payload, or flags). o Packet viewer (decoder) will
graphically display the layer3 and layer4 packet information of
logged alerts o Alert management by providing constructs to
logically group alerts to create incidents (alert groups), deleting
the handled alerts or false positives, exporting to email for
