Glossary

Last updated on 2024-08-01 | Edit this page

Glossary


Command-line argument/option
See the Carpentries Glossario entry
Command-line interface (CLI)
See the Carpentries Glossario entry
Computational pipeline
A combination of different software tools in a particular order that is used to perform a defined set of repeatable operations on different input data.
Container
A particular instance of a lightweight virtual machine derived from a container image. Containers are typically transient, unlike container images which persist.
Container image
The persistent binary artefact that encapsulates the set of files and configuration for running an instance of a container. Sometimes shortened to just image
CPU/processor
See the Carpentries Glossario entry
Dependency
See the Carpentries Glossario entry
Dependency hell
A colloquial term for the frustration of some software users who run into issues with software packages which have dependencies on specific versions of other software packages. The dependency issue arises when several packages have dependencies on the same shared packages or libraries, but they depend on different and incompatible versions of the shared packages. If the shared package or library can only be installed in a single version, the user may need to address the problem by obtaining newer or older versions of the dependent packages. This, in turn, may break other dependencies and push the problem to another set of packages. Extract from Wikipedia
Digital object identifier (DOI)
See the Carpentries Glossario entry
Docker
A software framework for creating, running and managing containers.
Docker build context
The docker build command builds Docker images from a Dockerfile and a “context”. A build’s context is the set of files located in the specified PATH or URL.
Docker Hub
An online library of Docker container images.
Docker Hub repository
A collection of related Docker container images hosted on Docker Hub.
Docker tag
The specific version identifier associated with a Docker container image.
Dockerfile
The file containing the commands to build a Docker container image along with the Docker context.
Filesystem
See the Carpentries Glossario entry
Filesystem layer
Each container image is made up of multiple read-only filesystem layers that represent the file system differences from the layers below them in the image.
Hardware
See the Carpentries Glossario entry
Hard drive
The hardware in a computer that hosts the filesystem (or, sometimes, other storage types).
Host computer
The computer system which is running the container.
Memory/RAM
Random Access Memory (RAM) is where data the CPU is working with is temporarily stored.
Operating system (OS)
See the Carpentries Glossario entry
Reproducible research
See the Carpentries Glossario entry
Software library
See the Carpentries Glossario entry
Tar archive
A file archive format commonly used in Unix-like operating systems that combines multiple files into a single file. tar archive files are used as the export format of Docker images.
Virtualization
Containers are an example of virtualization – having a second “virtual” computer running and accessible from a host computer.