diff --git a/website/content/docs/terminology.mdx b/website/content/docs/terminology.mdx index b52f8aa97..464f0f898 100644 --- a/website/content/docs/terminology.mdx +++ b/website/content/docs/terminology.mdx @@ -23,42 +23,42 @@ Luckily, there are relatively few. This page documents all the terminology required to understand and use Packer. The terminology is in alphabetical order for quick referencing. -- `Commands` are sub-commands for the `packer` program that perform some job. - An example command is "build", which is invoked as `packer build`. Packer - ships with a set of commands out of the box in order to define its - command-line interface. - -- `Templates` are JSON files which define one or more builds by configuring - the various components of Packer. Packer is able to read a template and use - that information to create multiple machine images in parallel. - -- `Data Sources` are components of Packer that fetch data from outside Packer - and make it available to use within the template. - Example of data sources include Amazon AMI, and Amazon Secrets Manager. - -- `Builds` are a single task that eventually produces an image for a single - platform. Multiple builds run in parallel. Example usage in a sentence: - "The Packer build produced an AMI to run our web application." Or: "Packer - is running the builds now for VMware, AWS, and VirtualBox." - - `Artifacts` are the results of a single build, and are usually a set of IDs or files to represent a machine image. Every builder produces a single artifact. As an example, in the case of the Amazon EC2 builder, the artifact is a set of AMI IDs (one per region). For the VMware builder, the artifact is a directory of files comprising the created virtual machine. +- `Builds` are a single task that eventually produces an image for a single + platform. Multiple builds run in parallel. Example usage in a sentence: + "The Packer build produced an AMI to run our web application." Or: "Packer + is running the builds now for VMware, AWS, and VirtualBox." + - `Builders` are components of Packer that are able to create a machine image for a single platform. Builders read in some configuration and use that to run and generate a machine image. A builder is invoked as part of a build in order to create the actual resulting images. Example builders include VirtualBox, VMware, and Amazon EC2. -- `Provisioners` are components of Packer that install and configure software - within a running machine prior to that machine being turned into a static - image. They perform the major work of making the image contain useful - software. Example provisioners include shell scripts, Chef, Puppet, etc. +- `Commands` are sub-commands for the `packer` program that perform some job. + An example command is "build", which is invoked as `packer build`. Packer + ships with a set of commands out of the box in order to define its + command-line interface. + +- `Data Sources` are components of Packer that fetch data from outside Packer + and make it available to use within the template. + Example of data sources include Amazon AMI, and Amazon Secrets Manager. - `Post-processors` are components of Packer that take the result of a builder or another post-processor and process that to create a new artifact. Examples of post-processors are compress to compress artifacts, upload to upload artifacts, etc. + +- `Provisioners` are components of Packer that install and configure software + within a running machine prior to that machine being turned into a static + image. They perform the major work of making the image contain useful + software. Example provisioners include shell scripts, Chef, Puppet, etc. + +- `Templates` are JSON files which define one or more builds by configuring + the various components of Packer. Packer is able to read a template and use + that information to create multiple machine images in parallel.