utility program

utility program
    n 1: (computer science) a program designed for general support
         of the processes of a computer; "a computer system provides
         utility programs to perform the tasks needed by most users"
         [syn: {utility program}, {utility}, {service program}]
    

utility software
utility
utility program

   <tool> (Or utility program, tool) Any {software} that performs
   some specific task that is secondary to the main purpose of
   using the computer (the latter would be called {application
   programs}) but is not essential to the operation of the
   computer ({system software}).

   Many utilities could be considered as part of the {system
   software}, which can in turn be considered part of the
   {operating system}.

   The following are some broad categories of utility software,
   specific types and examples.

   * Disks

   {disk formatter}: {FDISK}, {format}

   {defragmenter}

   {disk checker}: {fsck}

   {disk cleaner}

   {system profiler}

   {backup}

   {file system compression}

   * Files and directories

   list directory: {ls}, {dir}

   copy, move, remove: {cp}, {mv}, {rm}, {xcopy}

   {archive}: {tar}

   {compression}: {zip}

   format conversion: {atob}

   comparison: {diff}

   sort: {sort}

   * Security

   {authentication}: {login}

   {antivirus software}: {avast}, {Norton Antivirus}

   {firewall}: {Zone Alarm}, {Windows firewall}

   {encryption}: {gpg})

   * Editors for general-purpose formats (as opposed to specific
   formats like a {word processing} document)

   {text editor}: {Emacs}

   {binary editor}, {hex editor}

   * Communications

   {mail transfer agent}: {sendmail}

   e-mail notification: {biff}

   file transfer: {ftp}, {rcp}, {Firefox}

   file synchronisation: {unison}, {briefcase}

   chat: {Gaim}, {cu}

   directory services: {bind}, {nslookup}, {whois}

   network diagnosis: {ping}, {traceroute}

   remote access: {rlogin}, {ssh}

   * Software development

   {compiler}: {gcc}

   build: {make}, {ant}

   {codewalker}

   {preprocessor}: {cpp}

   {debugger}: {adb}, {gdb}

   {installation}: {apt-get}, {msiexec}, {patch}

   {compiler compiler}: {yacc}

   * Hardware

   device configuration: {PCU}, {devman}, {stty}

   (2007-02-02)