Glossary
List of frequently used terms and acronyms.
ABI
Application Binary Interface. ABI is a document that comprehensively defines the binary system interface between applications and the operating system on which they run.
Learn More at Wikipedia or pypackaging-native.
CDN
Content Delivery Network. CDNs are geographically distributed networks of servers that mirror the contents of a primary source. Having multiple servers offering the same content increases performance (reduced latency, higher download speeds) and availability.
CDT
Core Dependency Tree. Core Dependency Tree packages take care of the dependencies that are so close to the system that they are not packaged with conda-forge. For example, in conda-forge, we have used repackaged CentOS 6 or 7 binaries for some time.
CFEP
Conda Forge Enhancement Proposal. A CFEP is a document that outlines a suggested change to how the conda-forge project operates, from a technical standpoint as well as to address social topics such as governance and expected conduct.
CI
Continuous Integration. Continuous integration is the practice of automating the integration of code changes from multiple contributors into a single software project.
CLI
Command Line Interface. A textual interface of a program that allows the user to control the program with a single command line, which is entered in a command-line environment, such as the Miniforge Prompt on Windows, or a terminal on MacOS and Linux. An example of a program offering a CLI is conda.
Conda channel
Conda channels are the locations where packages are stored. They serve as the base for hosting and managing packages. conda-forge is one example of a conda channel.
Conda package
A conda package is a .tar.bz2 or .conda archive that contains libraries, executable programs, data files and other components, as well as metadata under the info/ directory. Its contents are unpacked in the installation prefix.
CRAN
Comprehensive R Archive Network. CRAN is a network of FTP and web servers around the world that store identical, up-to-date versions of code and documentation for R.
Environment
An environment is a tool that helps to keep dependencies required by different projects separate by creating isolated spaces where these dependencies are installed.
ICU
International Components for Unicode. ICU is an open-source project of mature C/C++ and Java libraries for Unicode support, software internationalization, and software globalization.
PR
Pull Request. A Pull Request is a workflow method to submit contributions to an open development project in which the developer asks for changes committed to an external repository to be considered for inclusion in a project's main repository.
Recipe
A recipe is a collection of files required to build a conda package. This includes, at minimum, a meta.yaml file, but can also include license files, patches, build scripts, test scripts etc.
Virtual package
Virtual packages are not real packages that can be downloaded. They are injected by the conda clients at runtime so the solver can consider that metadata as part of the constraints of the problem. By convention, they always start with a double underscore (__). Some examples include the type of operating system (Linux, Windows, macOS), or the CUDA version supported by the system (if any).