Glossary
Source Mage utilizes a magic and mythology metaphor for the names of many of our project components. Some of these are defined below.
Core Terms and Components
Source Mage's package management system component.
A collection of scripts, processed by Sorcery, to install a particular software package (similar to an RPM, ebuild, etc. for other distributions).
Generally, Source Mage's package collection component. More specifically, a collection of spells for a particular purpose. Currently we provide the following grimoires ourselves; others may provide more:
stable
A release cycle-controlled collection of spells that should be bug-free.
stable-rc
A release cycle-controlled collection of spells that is the next stable version release candidate.
test
A collection of spells that represents the bleeding edge; these versions compile for at least the developer that committed them, but may leave your system a smoldering ruin.
games
A collection of spells to install games, game servers and clients, etc.
z-rejected
A collection of spells which are not included in the primary grimoires because of licensing or other issues. These are more or less supported, depending on individual interest and availability.
A collection of grimoires.
Source Mage's installer and ISO generation scripts component.
Source Mage's documentation component, including general docs as well as end user-facing services such as Web sites, mailing lists, bug tracking system, etc.
People
A Lead Developer or Assistant Lead as defined in our Developer Organization document.
An optional title for an elder who works with the cauldron or sorcery set of scripts.
An optional title for an elder who works with the grimoire.
An optional title for an elder who works with the tome.
A General Developer as defined in our Developer Organization document.
An optional title for a mage who works with the cauldron or sorcery set of scripts.
An optional title for a mage who works with the grimoire, especially those who are responsible for a particular section, e.g. "Mail Guru".
An optional title for a mage who works with the tome. See also: other commands, scribe.
The Lead Developer Team and their Assistants, as defined in our Developer Organization document.
The General Developer Team, as defined in our Developer Organization document.
A developer in training, whose development commits must be approved by another developer before they reach the user-facing "test" releases. This is a voluntary restriction; all of our new developers have the option to immediately become full developers, and apprentices can become full developers any time they believe they are ready.
A Source Mage user (not a developer).
A Source Mage user (not a developer).
An automated process, e.g. an IRC bot.
Other Commands, etc.
Sorcery command to modify the tracked files of an already-installed spell.
Sorcery command to install a spell.
Sorcery command to inspect, clean, and repair broken systems.
Sorcery command to query system and spell information.
Automated QA/testing framework. Once started on a machine, Prometheus constantly casts random spells with random options selected and automatically files bugs for any failures encountered.
Sorcery command to copy spells between grimoires.
Sorcery command to add, remove, and manage grimoires installed on a system. See also: people, scribe.
Sorcery command to download upstream sources for a spell.