This list of GNU packages lists notable software packages developed for or maintained by the Free Software Foundation as part of the GNU Project.
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 systems" in many situations where other observers would just write "Linux", and "free software" rather than "open source".
- The maintainer should be contactable, at least infrequently, to discuss problems in the software or fixing compatibility issues.
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) and exclusions (such as the C standard library) are of course debatable.
The software listed below is generally useful to software developers and other computer programmers.
GNU Binutils – contains the GNU assembler (as) and the GNU linker (ld)
GNU bison – 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 – macro processor
GNU make – Make program for GNU
Other libraries and frameworks
The following libraries and software frameworks 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
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 – embeddable HTTP server
GNU lightning – just-in-time compilation for generating machine language
GNU oSIP – Session Initiation Protocol 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 implementation (compiler, debugger, and interpreter)
Gawk – GNU awk implementation
GnuCOBOL – COBOL compiler
GNU Common Lisp – implementation of Common Lisp
GNU MDK – a development kit for programming in MIX
GNU Pascal – Pascal compiler
GNU Smalltalk – ANSI Smalltalk-98 implementation (interpreter and class library)
MIT/GNU Scheme – interpreter, compiler and library for the Scheme programming language developed at MIT
SmartEiffel – GNU Eiffel compiler
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
The software listed below is generally useful to users not specifically engaged in software development.
The following packages provide GUI desktop environments, window managers, and associated graphics libraries.
GIMP – GNU Image Manipulation Program, a bitmap image editor (similar to Photoshop)
GTK+ – GIMP Toolkit, containing the GTK+, GDK, and GLib set of libraries (used by the GIMP and GNOME)
GNOME – GNU Network Object Model Environment, the official GNU desktop platform
GNUstep – implementation of the Cocoa/OpenStep libraries and development tools for graphical applications
Window Maker – window manager for the GNUstep environment
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 editor
GNU fcrypt – 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
GNU parallel – shell tool for executing jobs in parallel
GNU Parted – hard drive partitioning program
GNU Privacy Guard – PGP encryption replacement
GNU Stow – managing the installation of software packages
pexec – shell tool for executing jobs in parallel
GnowSys – 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
GMP – arbitrary precision numerical calculation programming library
GNU Archimedes – TCAD software for semiconductor device simulations
Gnucap – GNU Circuit Analysis Package
GNU datamash – programming language and command line utility for statistical computing
GNU Electric – EDA software used to draw schematics and to do integrated circuit layout
GNU Octave – program for numerical computations
GSL – GNU Scientific Library
GNU Units – unit conversion
PSPP – statistical program similar to SPSS
R – programming language and software environment for statistical computing and graphics
XaoS – fractal zoomer
GNU Alexandria – uses GNU Bayonne to provide access to electronic content and services for the blind over the public telephone network
GNU Anubis – 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 Social – distributed social network that is the continuation of the StatusNet codebase
Gnu Sovix – 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 Aspell – spell-checker designed to eventually replace Ispell
GNU gcal – calculating and printing calendars
GNU Miscfiles – several data files including standard airport, country, and language codes
GNU Typist – multi-lingual typing tutor
Gnumeric – spreadsheet program (Excel compatible)
Ocrad – optical character recognition
3DLDF – graphics package for producing three-dimensional technical drawings (especially for inclusion in TeX documents)
Dia – vector graphics program for creating diagrams
Gnash – player and browser plugin for the Adobe Flash file format
GNU LibreDWG – library for reading and writing .dwg files (used in CAD applications)
GNU LilyPond – music typesetting application
Gnu Maverik – Virtual Reality microkernel
Gnu Panorama – 3D framework, ray tracing
GNU Backgammon – backgammon game
GNUbik – implementation of the Rubik's Cube puzzle
GNU Chess – chess engine for use with glChess, Xboard or similar
GNU Go – implementation of the board game Go
GNU Jump – based on Xjump; also known as SDL Jump
GNU Kart – racing game
GNU Robots – game for computer programmers
Liquid War – war game
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 – time keeping application for small organizations
GNU Taler - upcoming decentralized online payment system designed to be taxable and accessible to mainstream currencies.
GNUe (GNU Enterprise), an enterprise planning software.
GNU FreeFont – a family of scalable outline fonts
GNU Unifont
