A number of notable software packages were developed for, or are maintained by, the Free Software Foundation as part of the GNU Project.

What it means to be a GNU package

Summarising the situation in 2013, Richard Stallman identified nine aspects which generally apply to being a GNU package, but he noted that exceptions and flexibility are possible when there are good reasons: # The package should say that it is a GNU package. # It should be distributed via ftp.gnu.org, or another site offering access to everyone. # The package's homepage should be on the GNU website. # The developers must pay attention to making their software work well with other GNU packages. # Documentation should be in Texinfo format, or in a format easily convertible to Texinfo. # Should use GNU Guile for its extension language, but exceptions are explicitly possible in this regard. # Should not recommend any non-free program, nor refer the user to any non-free documentation or non-free software. # Use GNU terminology, including referring to ''

GNU/Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

systems'' and ''free software'' in situations where other observers would write ''Linux'' and ''open source''. # The maintainer should be contactable, at least infrequently, to discuss problems in the software or fixing compatibility issues.

Base system

There is no official "base system" of the GNU operating system. GNU was designed to be a replacement for Unix operating systems of the 1980s and used the POSIX standards as a guide, but either definition would give a much larger "base system". The following list is instead a small set of GNU packages which seem closer to being "core" packages than being in any of the further down sections. Inclusions (such as

plotutils GNU plotutils is a set of free software command-line tools and software libraries for generating 2D plot graphics based on data sets. It is used in projects such as PSPP and UMLgraph, and in many areas of academic research, and is included in ...

) and exclusions (such as the

C standard library The C standard library or libc is the standard library for the C programming language, as specified in the ISO C standard.ISO/IEC (2018). '' ISO/IEC 9899:2018(E): Programming Languages - C §7'' Starting from the original ANSI C standard, it wa ...

) are of course debatable.

Notes

Software development

The software listed below is generally useful to software developers and other computer programmers.

GNU toolchain

* GNU Binutils – contains the GNU assembler (as) and the GNU linker (ld) *

GNU Bison GNU Bison, commonly known as Bison, is a parser generator that is part of the GNU Project. Bison reads a specification in the BNF notation (a context-free language), warns about any parsing ambiguities, and generates a parser that reads sequence ...

– parser generator intended to replace yacc * GNU build system (autotools) – contains Autoconf, Automake, Autoheader, and Libtool * GNU Compiler Collection – optimizing compiler for many programming languages, including C, C++, Fortran, Ada, and Java * GNU Debugger (gdb) – an advanced debugger *

GNU m4 m4 is a general-purpose macro processor included in most Unix-like operating systems, and is a component of the POSIX standard. The language was designed by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie for the original versions of UNIX. It is an extensio ...

– macro processor * GNU make – Make program for GNU

Other libraries and frameworks

The following libraries and

software framework In computer programming, a software framework is an abstraction in which software, providing generic functionality, can be selectively changed by additional user-written code, thus providing application-specific software. It provides a standard ...

s are often used in combination with the basic toolchain tools above to build software. (For libraries specifically designed to implement GUI desktops, see Graphical desktop.) * BFD – object file library * DotGNU – replacement for Microsoft .NET * GNU C Library (glibc) – POSIX-compliant C library * GNU Classpath – libraries for Java * GNU FriBidi – a library that implements Unicode's

Bidirectional Algorithm A bidirectional text contains two text directionalities, right-to-left (RTL) and left-to-right (LTR). It generally involves text containing different types of alphabets, but may also refer to boustrophedon, which is changing text direction in eac ...

* GNU ease.js – A Classical Object-Oriented framework for JavaScript * GNU gettext – internationalization library * Gnulib – portability library designed for use with the GNU build system *

GNU libmicrohttpd GNU () is an extensive collection of free software (383 packages as of January 2022), which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems. The use of the completed GNU tools led to the family of operat ...

– embeddable HTTP server * GNU lightning – just-in-time compilation for generating machine language *

GNU oSIP Osip ( Russian ''О́сип'') is a Russian male given name, a variant of the name Joseph. Notable people with the name include: * Osip Abdulov (1900–1953), Soviet actor * Osip Aptekman, Russian revolutionary * Ossip Bernstein (1882-1962), Russ ...

–

Session Initiation Protocol The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a signaling protocol used for initiating, maintaining, and terminating communication sessions that include voice, video and messaging applications. SIP is used in Internet telephony, in private IP telepho ...

library to implement VoIP applications * GNU Portable Threads (pth) – software threads for POSIX-compatible operating systems

Other compilers and interpreters

The following packages provide compilers and interpreters for programming languages beyond those included in the GNU Compiler Collection. * CLISP – ANSI

Common Lisp Common Lisp (CL) is a dialect of the Lisp programming language, published in ANSI standard document ''ANSI INCITS 226-1994 (S20018)'' (formerly ''X3.226-1994 (R1999)''). The Common Lisp HyperSpec, a hyperlinked HTML version, has been derived fro ...

implementation (compiler, debugger, and interpreter) * Gawk – GNU awk implementation * GnuCOBOL –

COBOL COBOL (; an acronym for "common business-oriented language") is a compiled English-like computer programming language designed for business use. It is an imperative, procedural and, since 2002, object-oriented language. COBOL is primarily us ...

compiler * GNU Common Lisp – implementation of

* GNU MDK – a development kit for programming in

MIX Mix, mixes or mixing may refer to: Persons & places * Mix (surname) ** Tom Mix (1880-1940), American film star * nickname of Mix Diskerud (born Mikkel, 1990), Norwegian-American soccer player * Mix camp, an informal settlement in Namibia * Mix ...

* GNU Pascal –

Pascal Pascal, Pascal's or PASCAL may refer to: People and fictional characters * Pascal (given name), including a list of people with the name * Pascal (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name ** Blaise Pascal, Fren ...

compiler *

GNU Smalltalk GNU Smalltalk is an implementation of the Smalltalk programming language by the GNU Project. The implementation, unlike other Smalltalk environments, uses text files for program input and interprets the contents as Smalltalk code. In this way, ...

– ANSI

Smalltalk Smalltalk is an object-oriented, dynamically typed reflective programming language. It was designed and created in part for educational use, specifically for constructionist learning, at the Learning Research Group (LRG) of Xerox PARC by Alan Ka ...

-98 implementation (interpreter and class library) *

MIT/GNU Scheme MIT/GNU Scheme is a programming language, a dialect and implementation of the language Scheme, which is a dialect of Lisp. It can produce native binary files for the x86 (IA-32, x86-64) processor architecture. It supports the R7RS-small standard. ...

– interpreter, compiler and library for the Scheme programming language developed at MIT * SmartEiffel – GNU

Eiffel Eiffel may refer to: Places * Eiffel Peak, a summit in Alberta, Canada * Champ de Mars – Tour Eiffel station, Paris, France; a transit station Structures * Eiffel Tower, in Paris, France, designed by Gustave Eiffel * Eiffel Bridge, Ungheni, M ...

compiler *

Gforth Gforth is a free and portable implementation of the Forth programming language for Unix-like systems, Microsoft Windows, and other operating systems. A primary goal of Gforth is to adhere to the ANS Forth standard. Gforth is free software as par ...

— GNU

Forth Forth or FORTH may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''forth'' magazine, an Internet magazine * ''Forth'' (album), by The Verve, 2008 * ''Forth'', a 2011 album by Proto-Kaw * Radio Forth, a group of independent local radio stations in Scotla ...

compiler

Other developer tools

* Data Display Debugger – debugger front-end for several debuggers (ddd) * GNU arch – distributed revision control system (deprecated in favor of GNU Bazaar) * GNU AutoGen – active tier-style tool for automated code generation * GNU Bazaar – distributed revision control system * GNU cflow – generates C flow graphs * GNU cppi – indents C preprocessor directives in files to reflect their nesting * GNU Fontutils – font management utilities * GNU gperf – perfect hash function generator * GNU indent – program to indent C and C++ source code * GNU complexity – measures the complexity of C source code *

GNUnited Nations GNUnited Nations is a free program developed by the GNU Project to manage translation of HTML The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be ass ...

- program for the translation of html files.

User applications

The software listed below is generally useful to users not specifically engaged in software development.

Graphical desktop

The following packages provide GUI desktop environments, window managers, and associated graphics libraries. *

GTK+ GTK (formerly GIMP ToolKit and GTK+) is a free and open-source cross-platform widget toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces (GUIs). It is licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License, allowing both free and proprie ...

– GIMP Toolkit, containing the GTK+, GDK, and GLib set of libraries (used by the

GIMP GIMP ( ; GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free and open-source raster graphics editor used for image manipulation (retouching) and image editing, free-form drawing, transcoding between different image file formats, and more specialized task ...

and

GNOME A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its characte ...

) * GNUstep – implementation of the

Cocoa Cocoa may refer to: Chocolate * Chocolate * ''Theobroma cacao'', the cocoa tree * Cocoa bean, seed of ''Theobroma cacao'' * Chocolate liquor, or cocoa liquor, pure, liquid chocolate extracted from the cocoa bean, including both cocoa butter and ...

/ OpenStep libraries and development tools for graphical applications * Window Maker – window manager for the GNUstep environment

General system administration

* GNU Accounting Utils – set of utilities providing statistics on users and processes (last, ac, accton, lastcomm, sa, dump-utmp, dump-acct) * GNU ddrescue – data recovery tool * GNU Emacs – implementation of

Emacs Emacs , originally named EMACS (an acronym for "Editor MACroS"), is a family of text editors that are characterized by their extensibility. The manual for the most widely used variant, GNU Emacs, describes it as "the extensible, customizable, s ...

editor *

GNU fcrypt GNU fcrypt was a disk encryption software project intended to offer multiple hidden partitions, " on the fly encryption" (automatic and transparent encryption), and "plausible deniability". The now disbanded project was part of the GNU project. In ...

– on-the-fly encryption * GNU Guix – package manager * GNU libextractor – metadata extraction library and tool * GNU Midnight Commander – text-based Orthodox file manager & FTP client * Mtools − collection of tools to edit MS-DOS floppy disks * GNU nano – text editor * GNU parallel – shell tool for executing jobs in parallel * GNU Parted – hard drive partitioning program *

GNU Privacy Guard GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG or GPG) is a free-software replacement for Symantec's PGP cryptographic software suite. The software is compliant with RFC 4880, the IETF standards-track specification of OpenPGP. Modern versions of PGP are interoper ...

–

PGP PGP or Pgp may refer to: Science and technology * P-glycoprotein, a type of protein * Pelvic girdle pain, a pregnancy discomfort * Personal Genome Project, to sequence genomes and medical records * Pretty Good Privacy, a computer program for the ...

encryption replacement *

GNU Privacy Assistant GNU () is an extensive collection of free software (383 packages as of January 2022), which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems. The use of the completed GNU tools led to the family of opera ...

, a graphical frontend to

GNU Stow A number of notable software packages were developed for, or are maintained by, the Free Software Foundation as part of the GNU Project. What it means to be a GNU package Summarising the situation in 2013, Richard Stallman identified nine aspects ...

– managing the installation of software packages *

pexec pexec is a command-line utility for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems which allows the user to execute shell commands in parallel. The specified code can be executed either locally or on remote hosts, in which case ssh is used to build a ...

– shell tool for executing jobs in parallel

Database

GnowSys GNOWSYS (Gnowledge Networking and Organizing system) is a specification for a generic distributed network based memory/knowledge management. It is developed as an application for developing and maintaining semantic web content. It is written in ...

– kernel for semantic computing (a distributed agent oriented knowledge base.) * GNU dbm (GDBM) * GNU Ferret – Free Entity Relationship and Reverse Engineering Tool, an SQL database designer

Scientific software

* GNU Archimedes – TCAD software for

semiconductor device A semiconductor device is an electronic component that relies on the electronic properties of a semiconductor material (primarily silicon, germanium, and gallium arsenide, as well as organic semiconductors) for its function. Its conductivity li ...

simulations * GNU Astronomy Utilities (Gnuastro) – Programs and libraries for astronomical data manipulation and analysis *

GNU Circuit Analysis Package GNU Circuit Analysis Package (Gnucap) is a general purpose Electronic circuit simulation, circuit simulator started by Albert Davis in 1993. It is part of the GNU Project. The latest stable version is 0.35 from 2006. The latest development snapsho ...

(Gnucap) – GNU Circuit Analysis Package *

GNU datamash GNU () is an extensive collection of free software (383 packages as of January 2022), which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems. The use of the completed GNU tools led to the family of operat ...

– programming language and command line utility for statistical computing * GNU Electric – EDA software used to draw schematics and to do

integrated circuit An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tiny ...

layout * GNU MCSim – simulation and statistical inference tool for algebraic or differential equation systems * GNU Multi-Precision Library (GMP) – arbitrary precision numerical calculation programming library * GNU Octave – program for numerical computations, similar to MATLAB * GNU Scientific Library (GSL) – Numeric analysis library. * GNU Units – unit conversion * R – programming language and software environment for statistical computing and graphics * PSPP – statistical program, similar to SPSS * XaoS – fractal zoomer

Internet

* Dld — performs dynamic link editing * Jami (formerly GNU Ring) – a free softphone and videocall software, a drop-in replacement for Skype * GNU Alexandria – uses

GNU Bayonne GNU () is an extensive collection of free software (383 packages as of January 2022), which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems. The use of the completed GNU tools led to the family of operat ...

to provide access to electronic content and services for the blind over the public telephone network *

GNU Anubis GNU Anubis is open-source software for processing outgoing email. It operates between the mail user agent (MUA) and mail transport agent (MTA), and can perform various processing and conversion in accord with the sender's specified rules, based ...

– outgoing mail processor that sits between the Mail User Agent and the Mail Transport Agent * GNU FM – federated music community platform, most commonly associated with Libre.fm * GNU Mailman – electronic mailing list management * GNU MediaGoblin – decentralized media sharing * GNU Artanis – Web Application Framework * GNU Social – distributed social network that is the continuation of the StatusNet codebase *

Gnu Sovix GNU () is an extensive collection of free software (383 packages as of January 2022), which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems. The use of the completed GNU tools led to the family of opera ...

– PHP-based website revision system * GNU wget – advanced file retrieval from networks and the Internet * GNUnet – decentralized, peer-to-peer communication network designed to be resistant to censorship * Gnuzilla – version of the Mozilla Application Suite containing free software only (includes GNU IceCat web-browser) * lsh – implementation of the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol version 2 * GNU LibreJS – a browser add-on that detects and blocks non-free and non-trivial JavaScript * GNU Taler – an anonymous electronic payment system * GNU Pipo BBS, a BBS under the GNU General Public License

Office

* GNU Aspell – spell-checker designed to eventually replace Ispell * GNU gcal – calculating and printing calendars *

GNU Miscfiles GNU () is an extensive collection of free software (383 packages as of January 2022), which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems. The use of the completed GNU tools led to the family of operat ...

– several data files including standard airport, country, and language codes * GNU Typist – multi-lingual typing tutor * Gnumeric – spreadsheet program ( Microsoft Excel compatible) *

Ocrad Ocrad is an optical character recognition program and part of the GNU Project. It is free software licensed under the GNU GPL. Based on a feature extraction method, it reads images in portable pixmap formats known as Portable anymap and produces ...

– optical character recognition

Multimedia

3DLDF GNU 3DLDF is a GNU software package for three-dimensional technical drawing. Currently, its only form of output is MetaPost code. GNU 3DLDF is written in C++ using the CWEB package created by Donald Knuth and Silvio Levy. It is intended, am ...

– graphics package for producing three-dimensional technical drawings (especially for inclusion in TeX documents) * Dia – vector graphics program for creating diagrams *

– GNU Image Manipulation Program, a bitmap image editor (similar to Photoshop) * Gnash – player and browser plugin for the Adobe Flash file format *

GNU LibreDWG GNU LibreDWG is a software library programmed in C to manage DWG computer files, native proprietary format of computer-aided design software AutoCAD. It aims to be a free software replacement for the OpenDWG libraries. The project is managed ...

– library for reading and writing

.dwg DWG (from ''drawing'') is a proprietary binary file format used for storing two- and three- dimensional design data and metadata. It is the native format for several CAD packages including DraftSight, AutoCAD, BricsCAD, IntelliCAD (and i ...

files (used in CAD applications) * GNU LilyPond – music typesetting application *

Gnu Maverik GNU () is an extensive collection of free software (383 packages as of January 2022), which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems. The use of the completed GNU tools led to the family of operat ...

– Virtual Reality microkernel * Gnu Panorama – 3D framework, ray tracing

Games

* GNU Backgammon – backgammon game * GNUbik – implementation of the

Rubik's Cube The Rubik's Cube is a Three-dimensional space, 3-D combination puzzle originally invented in 1974 by Hungarians, Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. Originally called the Magic Cube, the puzzle was licensed by Rubik t ...

puzzle *

GNU Chess GNU Chess is a free software chess engine and command-line interface chessboard. The goal of GNU Chess is to serve as a basis for research, and as such it has been used in numerous contexts. GNU Chess is free software, licensed under the terms o ...

– chess engine for use with

glChess An open-source video game, or simply an open-source game, is a video game whose source code is open-source. They are often freely distributable and sometimes cross-platform compatible. Definition and differentiation Not all open-source gam ...

, Xboard or similar * GNU Go – implementation of the board game Go *

GNU Jump GNU () is an extensive collection of free software (383 packages as of January 2022), which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems. The use of the completed GNU tools led to the family of opera ...

– based on Xjump; also known as SDL Jump * GNU Kart – racing game * GNU Robots – game for computer programmers * GNU FreeDink - implementation of

Dink Smallwood ''Dink Smallwood'' is an action role-playing video game developed by Robinson Technologies at the time consisting of Seth Robinson, Justin Martin, and Greg Smith. It was first released in 1998 before being released as freeware on October 17, 1999. ...

adventure/role-playing game * Liquid War – war game

Business applications

* GNU Health – free health and hospital information system * GNUmed – medical practice management software * GnuCash – financial accounting application * GNU remotecontrol – a web application for managing building automation devices *

GNU Foliot GNU () is an extensive collection of free software (383 packages as of January 2022), which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems. The use of the completed GNU tools led to the family of operat ...

– time keeping application for small organizations *

GNU.FREE GNU.FREE is a free voting system that was officially part of the GNU project. The author of GNU.FREE has publicly discontinued his work on the project, due to disillusionment with the concept of secure Internet voting. Overview of protocol In ...

, a free voting system, suspended in 2002 * GNU Taler - planned decentralized online payment system designed to be taxable and accessible to mainstream currencies. * GNUe (GNU Enterprise), an enterprise planning software.

Fonts

* GNU FreeFont – a family of scalable outline fonts * GNU Unifont

References

External links

FSF Free Software Directory – All GNU Packages
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Gnu Packages

GNU packages A number of notable software packages were developed for, or are maintained by, the Free Software Foundation as part of the GNU Project. What it means to be a GNU package Summarising the situation in 2013, Richard Stallman identified nine aspects ...