<html lang="en"> <head> <title>Terminology - Stow</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html"> <meta name="description" content="Stow"> <meta name="generator" content="makeinfo 4.13"> <link title="Top" rel="start" href="index.html#Top"> <link rel="prev" href="Introduction.html#Introduction" title="Introduction"> <link rel="next" href="Invoking-Stow.html#Invoking-Stow" title="Invoking Stow"> <link href="http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/" rel="generator-home" title="Texinfo Homepage"> <!-- This manual describes GNU Stow version 2.2.2 (9 November 2015), a program for managing the installation of software packages. 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A common, but by no means the only such location is <samp><span class="file">/usr/local</span></samp>. The examples in this manual will use <samp><span class="file">/usr/local</span></samp> as the target directory. <p><a name="index-stow-directory-3"></a>A <dfn>stow directory</dfn> is the root of a tree containing separate packages in private subtrees. When Stow runs, it uses the current directory as the default stow directory. The examples in this manual will use <samp><span class="file">/usr/local/stow</span></samp> as the stow directory, so that individual packages will be, for example, <samp><span class="file">/usr/local/stow/perl</span></samp> and <samp><span class="file">/usr/local/stow/emacs</span></samp>. <p><a name="index-installation-image-4"></a>An <dfn>installation image</dfn> is the layout of files and directories required by a package, relative to the target directory. Thus, the installation image for Perl includes: a <samp><span class="file">bin</span></samp> directory containing <samp><span class="file">perl</span></samp> and <samp><span class="file">a2p</span></samp> (among others); an <samp><span class="file">info</span></samp> directory containing Texinfo documentation; a <samp><span class="file">lib/perl</span></samp> directory containing Perl libraries; and a <samp><span class="file">man/man1</span></samp> directory containing man pages. <p><a name="index-package-directory-5"></a><a name="index-package-name-6"></a>A <dfn>package directory</dfn> is the root of a tree containing the installation image for a particular package. Each package directory must reside in a stow directory — e.g., the package directory <samp><span class="file">/usr/local/stow/perl</span></samp> must reside in the stow directory <samp><span class="file">/usr/local/stow</span></samp>. The <dfn>name</dfn> of a package is the name of its directory within the stow directory — e.g., <samp><span class="file">perl</span></samp>. <p>Thus, the Perl executable might reside in <samp><span class="file">/usr/local/stow/perl/bin/perl</span></samp>, where <samp><span class="file">/usr/local</span></samp> is the target directory, <samp><span class="file">/usr/local/stow</span></samp> is the stow directory, <samp><span class="file">/usr/local/stow/perl</span></samp> is the package directory, and <samp><span class="file">bin/perl</span></samp> within is part of the installation image. <p><a name="index-symlink-7"></a><a name="index-relative-symlink-8"></a><a name="index-absolute-symlink-9"></a>A <dfn>symlink</dfn> is a symbolic link. A symlink can be <dfn>relative</dfn> or <dfn>absolute</dfn>. An absolute symlink names a full path; that is, one starting from <samp><span class="file">/</span></samp>. A relative symlink names a relative path; that is, one not starting from <samp><span class="file">/</span></samp>. The target of a relative symlink is computed starting from the symlink's own directory. Stow only creates relative symlinks. <!-- =========================================================================== --> </body></html>