utility program

2 definitions found

utility program - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  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 program - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  utility software
  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)