GNU Project - ParabolaWiki

# GNU Project

Summary
This article describes the GNU Project and lists some of the essential tools that qualify Parabola as a GNU/Linux free distribution.
Overview
The aim of the GNU Project is to produce a totally free operating system. While the GNU kernel has not reached a stable version, the project has resulted in the creation of many tools that power most Unix-like operating systems. Parabola is such a system, using GNU software like the GRUB bootloader, Bash shell, and numerous other utilities and libraries.
Related
Parabola
Beginners' Guide
Parabola User Repository
Parabola Compared to Other Distributions
Core Utilities

From http://www.gnu.org/

  The GNU Project was launched in 1984 to develop the GNU operating system, a complete Unix-like operating system which is free software—software which respects your freedom.
  Unix-like operating systems are built from a software collection of applications, libraries, and developer tools—plus a program to allocate resources and talk to the hardware, known as a kernel. [...]
  The combination of GNU and Linux is the GNU/Linux operating system, now used by millions and sometimes incorrectly called simply “Linux”.
  The name “GNU” is a recursive acronym for “GNU's Not Unix!”

Since Parabola is a GNU/Linux based distribution, many of its basic tools are from the GNU Project. This article will give a brief description of the core components, as well as some other useful applications.

## The Base System

At the end of the installation process, an Parabola system is nothing more than the Linux-libre Kernel, the GNU toolchain, and a few other useful command line tools. The minimal install normally contains the entire base group.

### Kernel

While Hurd, the GNU Kernel, is under active development, there is not yet a stable version. For this reason Parabola and most other GNU free based systems use the Linux-libre Kernel.

### Software Collection

bootloader: GRUB is the standard bootloader for Parabola, which is now maintained by GNU.

C library: glibc is "the library which defines the `system calls' and other basic facilities such as open, malloc, printf, exit..."[1]

binary utilities: binutils provides the "collection of programming tools for the manipulation of object code in various object file formats"[2].

shell: Bash, another GNU based application[3], is the default shell.

core utilities: The coreutils package contains "the basic file, shell and text manipulation utilities"[4].

compression: gzip and Tar handle many packages for GNU/Linux systems. For example, those from the Arch User Repository come as Gzipped tarballs.

## Development Tools

Though not necessary, users have the option of installing the base-devel group for some software development tools. This group is a requirement for building packages from the Arch User Repository.

Among base-devel are several members of the GNU toolchain, a "suite of tools used in a serial manner [...] for developing applications and operating systems". The key components of this toolchain are:

compilation and build: make

compiler collection: gcc

linker, assembler and other tools: binutils

parser generator: bison

macro processor: m4

GNU Build System (autotools):

  automatically configure source code: autoconf

  automatically create Makefiles: automake

  library support script: libtool

## Other Tools

Many other optional GNU tools are available in the official repositories:

widget toolkit: GTK+

desktop environment: GNOME

flash player: gnash

spreadsheet: Gnumeric

image editor: GIMP

full-screen window manager: GNU Screen

## Links

For a list of all current GNU projects, see All GNU Packages

## Acknowledgement

This wiki article is based on ArchWiki. We may have removed non-FSDG bits from it.
Categories:

- DeveloperWiki
- Software