Table of Contents
Arch Linux Glossary
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- Provide a Arch Linux glossary of the top 40 Arch Linux concepts sorted by the most commonly used. For each concept include a brief description and the URL for the Arch Linux official documentation. Answer using MediaWiki format.
Creating a glossary of the top 40 Arch Linux concepts requires a focus on the distribution's unique features, philosophy, and tools. Arch Linux is known for its simplicity, modernity, and versatility, appealing to users who wish to understand their system's workings in depth. Below is an example glossary in MediaWiki format, highlighting essential Arch Linux concepts. This selection reflects common tools, features, and methodologies inherent to Arch Linux, along with links to the official Arch Linux documentation for detailed exploration.
Simple Arch Linux Glossary
This glossary provides an overview of the top 40 most commonly used Arch Linux concepts, including a brief description and links to the official Arch Linux documentation for each.
Pacman
Pacman is the package manager of Arch Linux, used for installing, removing, and updating software packages.
AUR (Arch User Repository)
The AUR is a community-driven repository with thousands of scripts that allow users to compile packages from source.
Arch Wiki
The Arch Wiki is a comprehensive resource offering detailed documentation on every aspect of Arch Linux and its configuration.
Arch Install Scripts
Scripts that provide a set of tools to facilitate manual installation of Arch Linux, a method preferred by more experienced users.
makepkg
A script to automate the building of packages. It is used to create packages compatible with the Pacman package manager from source code.
Yaourt
Yaourt was a popular wrapper for Pacman and AUR. It has been superseded by other AUR helpers like Yay due to security concerns.
- https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/AUR_helpers Historical Reference]
Yay
Yay is a modern replacement for Yaourt, offering better security and functionality as an AUR helper and Pacman wrapper.
systemd
systemd is the system and service manager for Linux, used as the init system in Arch Linux to bootstrap the user space and manage system processes after booting.
Arch Build System (ABS)
The ABS is a ports-like system for building and packaging software from source code.
Pacman.conf
The configuration file for Pacman, allowing users to customize the behavior of the package manager.
PKGBUILD
The PKGBUILD files are scripts that contain information required by makepkg to create a package.
Arch Linux ARM
A port of Arch Linux for ARM computers, providing the same flexibility and simplicity for ARM devices.
- https://archlinuxarm.org/ Official Website]
Rolling Release Model
Arch Linux follows a rolling release model, providing the latest stable versions of software through continuous updates.
pacman-key
The utility for managing Pacman's keyring, which is used to verify packages.
LightDM
A lightweight display manager for the X window system that offers a GUI for logging in to an Arch Linux system.
Xorg
The X Window System that provides the graphical environment for Arch Linux.
Wayland
A newer display server protocol seen as the successor to Xorg, providing a more modern and simpler windowing system.
GNOME
A popular desktop environment for Linux that offers a focus on usability and accessibility.
KDE Plasma
A powerful and customizable desktop environment that offers a traditional graphical user interface.
XFCE
A lightweight and fast desktop environment known for its stability and configurability.
LXQt
A lightweight and modular desktop environment that aims to be fast and user-friendly.
i3
A tiling window manager that encourages users to manage windows in a non-overlapping, grid-based layout.
GRUB
GRUB is the default bootloader for Arch Linux, used to load the Linux kernel and initial RAM disk.
.archlinux.org/title/GRUB
EFI System Partition (ESP)
The partition on a GPT-formatted storage device that contains EFI boot loaders and other files required to start the system.
mkinitcpio
A Bash script to create an initial ramdisk environment.
ArchISO
A tool for creating Arch Linux live and installation mediums.
LUKS
The standard for Linux hard disk encryption.
Sudo
A program designed to allow a sysadmin to give limited root privileges to users and log root activity.
fstab
The file system table file, used to define how disk partitions, remote file systems, and other storage devices are mounted into the filesystem.
SSH
Secure Shell, a protocol for securely accessing network services over an unsecured network.
netctl
A profile-based network management system for Arch Linux.
UFW
Uncomplicated Firewall, a frontend for iptables aiming to simplify the configuration of a firewall.
iptables
A user-space utility program that allows a system administrator to configure the IP packet filter rules of the Linux kernel firewall.
Docker
A set of platform as a service products that use OS-level virtualization to deliver software in packages called containers.
VirtualBox
A free and open-source hosted hypervisor for x86 virtualization.
Wine
A compatibility layer capable of running Windows applications on several POSIX-compliant operating systems.
Steam
A digital distribution platform for video games. Arch Linux supports running Steam through native Linux applications or Wine.
NVIDIA Drivers
Proprietary drivers for NVIDIA graphics cards.
AMDGPU
The open-source graphics drivers for AMD graphics cards.
This glossary provides an introduction to some of the most essential and commonly used concepts in Arch Linux. For more detailed information and additional concepts, refer to the official Arch Linux documentation and wiki.
This list is not exhaustive and reflects a snapshot of relevant tools and concepts. The Arch Linux wiki is dynamically updated by the community, so new tools and best practices emerge over time. Always refer to the [official Arch Linux documentation](https://wiki.archlinux.org/) for the most current and comprehensive information.
Arch Linux: Arch Linux Glossary. (navbar_arch_linux - see also navbar_linux)
Linux, kernel, systemd, init, GRUB (GRand Unified Bootloader), initramfs, ext4 (Fourth Extended Filesystem), XFS, Btrfs (B-Tree File System), zram, zswap, cgroups (Control Groups), namespaces, selinux (Security-Enhanced Linux), AppArmor, iptables, nftables, firewalld, auditd, journald, syslog, logrotate, dmesg, udev, eBPF (Extended Berkeley Packet Filter), KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine), QEMU (Quick Emulator), VirtIO, LXC (Linux Containers), Docker, Podman, CRI-O, Kubernetes Integration, etcd, Linux Control Groups, LXD (Linux Daemon), Snap, Flatpak, AppImage, RPM (Red Hat Package Manager), dpkg (Debian Package Manager), APT (Advanced Package Tool), YUM (Yellowdog Updater, Modified), DNF (Dandified YUM), Pacman, Zypper, Portage, emerge, Nix, pkg-config, ldconfig, make, cmake, autoconf, automake, configure, GCC (GNU Compiler Collection), Clang, glibc (GNU C Library), musl, libstdc++, libc, binutils, GNU Coreutils, Bash (Bourne Again Shell), Zsh (Z Shell), Fish Shell, dash, sh, SSH (Secure Shell), sshd (SSH Daemon), scp (Secure Copy), rsync, SCP (Secure Copy Protocol), wget, curl, ftp, sftp, TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol), NFS (Network File System), CIFS (Common Internet File System), Samba, autofs, mount, umount, lsblk, blkid, parted, fdisk, gdisk, mkfs, fsck, tune2fs, xfs_repair, btrfs-progs, mdadm (Multiple Device Admin), RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks), LVM (Logical Volume Manager), thin provisioning, lvcreate, lvremove, vgcreate, vgremove, pvcreate, pvremove, multipath-tools, ISCSI (Internet Small Computer Systems Interface), nvme-cli, dm-crypt, cryptsetup, LUKS (Linux Unified Key Setup), dracut, GRUB Customizer, PXE (Preboot Execution Environment), tftpboot, Syslinux, LiveCD, LiveUSB, mkbootdisk, dd, cpio, tar, gzip, bzip2, xz, 7zip, zstd, rsyslog, sysctl, lsmod, modprobe, depmod, modinfo, insmod, rmmod, kmod, dkms (Dynamic Kernel Module Support), kernel tuning, kernel headers, kernel modules, patch, diff, strace, ltrace, ptrace, perf, htop, top, iotop, atop, vmstat, mpstat, sar, dstat, iostat, uptime, free, df, du, ps, pidstat, nice, renice, kill, pkill, killall, jobs, bg, fg, wait, nohup, screen, tmux, cron, crontab, at, anacron, systemctl, service, chkconfig, rc-update, update-rc.d, ntpd (Network Time Protocol Daemon), chronyd, hwclock, timedatectl, ntpdate, ufw (Uncomplicated Firewall), iptables-save, iptables-restore, fail2ban, denyhosts, tcp_wrappers, libcap, setcap, getcap, auditctl, ausearch, kernel parameters, boot parameters, sysfs, procfs, debugfs, tmpfs, ramfs, overlayfs, aufs, bind mounts, chroot, pivot_root, overlay2, network namespaces, bridge-utils, iproute2, ip, ifconfig, route, netstat, ss, arp, ping, traceroute, mtr, tcpdump, ngrep, nmap, arp-scan, ethtool, iwconfig, iw, wpa_supplicant, hostapd, dnsmasq, networkmanager, nmcli, nmtui, system-config-network, dhclient, dhcpd, isc-dhcp-server, bind9, named, unbound, nslookup, dig, resolvconf, iptables, nftables, firewalld, conntrack, ipset, snort, suricata, tcp_wrappers, rkhunter, chkrootkit, clamav, lynis, openvpn, strongswan, libreswan, openconnect, network namespaces, virtual ethernet, veth, tap interfaces, tun interfaces, vlan, bridge, brctl, ovs-vsctl, openvswitch, macvlan, ipvlan, bonding, teamd, network teaming, multipath, multipath-tools, route tables, ip rule, ip route, policy routing, qos, tc (Traffic Control), htb, fq_codel, cake, iptables NAT, iptables MASQUERADE, squid, socks5, privoxy, tor, iptables DNAT, iptables SNAT, iptables REDIRECT, conntrack, stateful firewall, stateless firewall, tcp_window_scaling, tcp_timestamps, tcp_sack, tcp_rmem, tcp_wmem, tcp_no_metrics_save, tcp_ecn, netem, ip6tables, ipset, ebtables, arptables, bridge-nf, br_netfilter, openvswitch, gre tunnels, ipip tunnels, vxlan, gretap, macsec, macvlan, ipvlan, wireguard, strongswan, libreswan, xfrm, ipsec, isakmpd, racoon, openswan, ikev2, ikev1, vpn tunnels, gre tunnels, vxlan tunnels, fou tunnels, ipip tunnels.
Linux Core Utilities commands - GNU Core Utilities command-line interface programs
This list should really only include standard universal commands that come with GNU Core Utilities.
- tac
This should really only include standard universal commands that come with all Linux distributions adhering to the Single UNIX Specification.
Really this is “Unix programs”, since there are no commands in Unix, they are programs except for shell builtins.
Unix command-line interface programs and shell builtins:
Unix user environment commands:
[[env]]
Unix text processing commands:
[[alias (command) ]] | [[ alias]]
Note: Networking is not part of SUS
Unix network utility commands:
Unix software development commands: Note: There are a huge number of Linux software development tools / Unix software development tools; this list should be restricted to ones that are standardized as part of Unix, i.e., those marked SD, CD], or FD (http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/help/codes.html) within the Unix/POSIX specifications
See also
References
Linux Commands (ls, cd, pwd, cp, mv, rm, mkdir, rmdir, touch, cat, less, head, tail, grep, find, chmod, chown, chgrp, tar, gzip, gunzip, df, du, ps, top, kill, man, ssh, scp, rsync, vim, nano, sed, awk, ping, ifconfig, netstat, route, traceroute, dig), Linux Fundamentals, Linux Inventor: Linus Torvalds says “Linux sucks | Linux just sucks less.”, Linux Best Practices - Linux Anti-Patterns, Linux kernel, Linux commands-Linux Shells-Linux CLI-GNU-Linux GUI-X11, Linux DevOps-Linux development-Linux system programming-Bash-zsh-Linux API, Linux package managers, Linux configuration management (Ansible on Linux, Chef on Linux, Puppet on Linux, PowerShell on Linux), Linux Distros (RHEL-Rocky Linux-CentOS (CentOS Stream)-Oracle Linux-Fedora, Ubuntu-Debian-Linux Mint-Raspberry Pi OS-Kali Linux-Tails, openSUSE - SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), Arch Linux-Manjaro Linux, Alpine Linux-BusyBox - Slackware - Android-Chrome OS); UNIX-UNIX Distros (FreeBSD-OpenBSD, BSD, macOS), Linux networking, Linux storage, Linux secrets, Linux security (Linux IAM-LDAP-Linux Firewall-Linux Proxy), Linux docs, Linux GitHub, Linux Containers, Linux VM, Linux on AWS, Linux on Azure, Linux on GCP, Linux on Windows (WSL), Linux on IBM, Linux on Mainframe (Linux on IBM Z mainframe - Linux for System z - IBM LinuxONE), Embedded Linux, Linus IoT-Linux on Raspberry Pi, LinuxOps-Linux sysadmin, systemd-userland-kernel space-POSIX-SUS-Linux filesystem-Linux architecture, Linux books-UNIX books, Linux courses, Linux Foundation, Linux history, Linux philosophy, Linux adoption, Linux Glossary - Glossaire de Linux - French, Linux topics (navbar_linux and navbar_unix - see also navbar_fedora, navbar_rhel, navbar_centos, navbar_debian, navbar_ubuntu, navbar_linux_mint, navbar_freebsd, navbar_opensuse, navbar_manjaro, navbar_kali_linux, navbar_nixos, navbar_alpine_linux, navbar_tails_linux, navbar_slackware, navbar_rocky_linux, navbar_arch_linux, navbar_oracle_linux)
Fair Use Source
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