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(stow.info)Terminology

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Terminology
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   A "package" is a related collection of files and directories that
you wish to administer as a unit--e.g., Perl or Emacs--and that needs
to be installed in a particular directory structure--e.g., with `bin',
`lib', and `man' subdirectories.

   A "target directory" is the root of a tree in which one or more
packages wish to _appear_ to be installed.  A common, but by no means
the only such location is `/usr/local'.  The examples in this manual
will use `/usr/local' as the target directory.

   A "stow directory" 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 `/usr/local/stow' as the stow directory, so that individual
packages will be, for example, `/usr/local/stow/perl' and
`/usr/local/stow/emacs'.

   An "installation image" is the layout of files and directories
required by a package, relative to the target directory.  Thus, the
installation image for Perl includes:  a `bin' directory containing
`perl' and `a2p' (among others); an `info' directory containing Texinfo
documentation; a `lib/perl' directory containing Perl libraries; and a
`man/man1' directory containing man pages.

   A "package directory" 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
`/usr/local/stow/perl' must reside in the stow directory
`/usr/local/stow'.  The "name" of a package is the name of its
directory within the stow directory--e.g., `perl'.

   Thus, the Perl executable might reside in
`/usr/local/stow/perl/bin/perl', where `/usr/local' is the target
directory, `/usr/local/stow' is the stow directory,
`/usr/local/stow/perl' is the package directory, and `bin/perl' within
is part of the installation image.

   A "symlink" is a symbolic link.  A symlink can be "relative" or
"absolute".  An absolute symlink names a full path; that is, one
starting from `/'.  A relative symlink names a relative path; that is,
one not starting from `/'.  The target of a relative symlink is
computed starting from the symlink's own directory.  Stow only creates
relative symlinks.