Glossary

applicability data
Applicability data for a consumer consists of arrays of applicable content unit ids, keyed by a content unit type. The definition of applicability itself differs for each content type. For example, in case of an rpm, a content unit is considered applicable to a consumer when an older version of the content unit installed on that consumer can be updated to the given content unit.
binding
An association between a consumer and a repository distributor for the purpose of installing content units on the specified consumer.
call report
A JSON object describing metadata, progress information, and the final result of any asynchronous task being executed by Pulp.
conduit
Object passed to a plugin when it is invoked. The conduit contains methods the plugin should use to access the Pulp Server or Pulp Agent.
consumer
A managed system that is the consumer of content. Consumption refers to the installation of software contained within a repository and published by an associated distributor.
content unit
An individual piece of content managed by the Pulp server. A unit does not necessarily correspond to a file. It is possible that a content unit is defined as the aggregation of other content units as a grouping mechanism.
distributor
Server-side plugin that takes content from a repository and publishes it for consumption. The process by which a distributor publishes content varies based on the desired approach of the distributor. A repository may have more than one distributor associated with it at a given time.
extension
Client-side command line interface plugin that provides additional commands within the command-line clients.
handler
Agent plugin that implements content type specific or operating system specific operations on the consumer.
importer
Server-side plugin that provides support for synchronizing content from an external source and importing that content into the Pulp server. Importers are added to repositories to define the supported functionality of that repository.
iso8601 interval

ISO Date format that is able to specify an optional number of recurrences, an optional start time, and a time interval. There are a number of equivalent formats. Pulp supports: R<optional recurrences>/<optional start time>/P<interval> Examples:

  • simple daily interval: P1DT
  • 6 hour interval with 3 recurrences: R3/PT6H
  • 10 minute interval with start time: 2012-06-22T12:00:00Z/PT10M

Further reading and more examples: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601#Time_intervals

platform
Short for the “Pulp Platform”, which refers to the generic framework functionality provided by Pulp. The platform has no type-specific knowledge; all type-specific functionality is provided through plugins to the platform.
repository
A collection of content units. A repository’s supported types is dictated by the configured importer. A repository may have multiple distributors associated which are used to publish its content to multiple destinations, formats, or protocols.
scratchpad
Persisted area in which a plugin may store information to be retained across multiple invocations. Each scratchpad is scoped to an individual plugin on a repository.
unit profile
An array of content unit entries installed on a consumer. The structure and content of each item in the profile varies based on the unit type.