.. glossary::
BIOS
A set of computer instructions in firmware that control input and
output operations.
CLI
Command Line Interface
Domain Specific Language
A special purpose programming language dedicated to a particular
problem area, e.g. SQL is a domain specific language for retrieval
of data from a database.
EPEL
Common acronym for Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux. These are
typically included in Fedora Linux, and provided for RedHat, CentOS,
and other RPM-based distributions. The project's homepage is
here: `FedoraProject:EPEL <http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL>`_.
GUI
Pronounced "gooey", this is an acronym for a Graphical User Interface.
This is distinctly different from a :term:`CLI`, in that the GUI typically can contain more complex visual interactions.
Read more here: `Wikipedia:GUI <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphical_user_interface>`_.
MAC
Pronounced as "mack" and often used as a noun referring to a network
device's Media Access Controller (MAC) address. A MAC address is a
globally unique number assigned to each interface in an Ethernet network
and used to direct Ethernet frames between source and destination
devices.
OSI
Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) is an effort to develop
standards-based computer networking protocols in order to allow
networking equipment from different vendors to interoperate without
relying on implementation of competing proprietary protocols. The OSI is
best known for the development of the standard seven-layer OSI model for
describing layers of abstraction into which the various networking
protocols are categorized.
POSIX
An acronym for "Portable Operating System Interface", is a family of
standards specified by the IEEE for maintaining compatibility between
operating systems. POSIX defines the application programming interface
(API), along with command line shells and utility interfaces, for
software compatibility with variants of Unix and other operating systems.
Read more here: `Wikipedia:POSIX <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POSIX>`_.
RFC
The RFC documents (Request for Comments) are a series of Internet
standards, best common practices, and related documents describing how
networked computers communicate. This document series provides the
standards for how the Internet and many other related technologies
interrelate and interoperate.
VLAN
An acronym for "Virtual Local Area Network"; a single physical switch
can be divided into multiple "virtual" switches via the configuration
of VLANs, and assigning individual switchports into a given VLAN.
Each VLAN represents a Ethernet broadcast domain (boundary); best
practices dictate that a single IP (Layer 3) network be mapped to a
single VLAN. Packets must be routed between VLANs (either by an
outboard router, or by an internal router in what is known as a
"Layer 3 switch.")