[Q] Zip aligning - what is it?

[Q] Zip aligning - what is it? - T-Mobile LG G2x

Hi.
I am seeing a lot of this at ROMs
Thanks

zipalign is an archive alignment tool that provides important optimization to Android application (.apk) files. The purpose is to ensure that all uncompressed data starts with a particular alignment relative to the start of the file. Specifically, it causes all uncompressed data within the .apk, such as images or raw files, to be aligned on 4-byte boundaries. This allows all portions to be accessed directly with mmap() even if they contain binary data with alignment restrictions. The benefit is a reduction in the amount of RAM consumed when running the application.
http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/zipalign.html

wewoapsiak said:
zipalign is an archive alignment tool that provides important optimization to Android application (.apk) files. The purpose is to ensure that all uncompressed data starts with a particular alignment relative to the start of the file. Specifically, it causes all uncompressed data within the .apk, such as images or raw files, to be aligned on 4-byte boundaries. This allows all portions to be accessed directly with mmap() even if they contain binary data with alignment restrictions. The benefit is a reduction in the amount of RAM consumed when running the application.
http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/zipalign.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AMAZING thanks so much for this very informative response!

Related

LZX Compression

I made a kitchen that creates ROMs in both XPR and LZX compressions.
I'm also trying to port it to the Artemis, the Trinity, and the Hermes.
The way the kitchen work is:
Run "RunMe.bat"
Choose compression algorithm. (XPR or LZX)
Follow the normal Bepe's kitchen process.
Wait as the kitchen creates the ROM (like Bepe's kitchen, but with whatever compression you chose.)
The kitchen will automatically open up the imgfs.bin in a hex editor and automatically adjust it for the wanted compression before it builds the ROM.
It automatically inserts the proper XIP drivers.
It will automatically set the Pagepool to 4MB but give you the option to change it to something else as it does.
It then automatically creates the NBH and then finally launches whatever flasher (CustomerRUU, FlashCenter, or whatever your devices use) to flash the ROM.
For those who don't know what LZX compression is:
It's a compression algorithm that, although slower (by 1-4% in real life use) gives a good amount of free storage space. In some case (like in the Herald) it makes the ROM so small that it has to be flashed through an SD card due to the Herald's flashing size requirements. On an average 50mb ROM, it takes off about 10mb. The actual cooking itself does take a LOT more CPU and RAM to do in your PC, though. Especially the RAM. (It's because the tools that actually do the compression weren't really optimized for the job.)
Anyhow, let me know if you want it.

I would love to use it if you're willing to share. I really want to get into cooking. I just don't have time these days.
Here is a bit that one of my buddies wrote on compression, for those interested. He's actually discussing LZMA (which is what 7zip uses by default), which is similar to the LZ1 dictionary (the same dictionary used in LZX compression algorithms). This should help people to understand what settings to use depending on the situation.
Hehe. I've long been fascinated by compression algorithms ever since studying the original Lempel-Ziv algorithm some years ago.
The key here is the dictionary, which, in a simplified nutshell, stores patterns that have been encountered. You encounter pattern A, compress/encode it, and then the next time you see pattern A, since it's already in the dictionary, you can just use that. With a small dictionary, what happens is that you'll encounter pattern A, then pattern B, C, D, etc., and by the time you encounter pattern A again, it's been pushed out of the dictionary so that you can't re-use it, and thus you take a hit on your size. All compression algorithms basically work on eliminating repetition and patterns, so being able to recognize them is vital, and for dictionary-based algorithms (which comprise most mainstream general-purpose algorithms), a small dictionary forces you to forget what you saw earlier, thus hurting your ability to recognize those patterns and repetitions; small dictionary == amnesia.
Solid compression is also important because without it, you are using a separate dictionary for every file. Compress file 1, reset dictionary, compress file 2, reset dictionary, etc. In other words, regular non-solid compression == amnesia. With solid compression, you treat all the files as one big file and never reset your dictionary. The downside is that it's harder to get to a file in the middle or end of the archive, as it means that you must decompress everything before it to reconstruct the dictionary, and it also means that any damage to the archive will affect every file beyond the point of damage. The first problem is not an issue if you are extracting the whole archive anyway, and the second issue is really only a problem if you are using it for archival backup and can be mitigated with Reed-Solomon (WinRAR's recovery data, or something external, like PAR2 files). Solid archiving is very, very important if you have lots of files that are similar, as is the case for DirectX runtimes (since you have a dozen or so versions of what is basically the same DLL). For example, when I was compressing a few versions of a DVD drive's firmware some years ago, the first file in the archive was compressed to about 40% or so of the original size, but every subsequent file was compressed to less than 0.1% of their original size, since they were virtually duplicates of the first file (with only some minor differences). Of course, with a bunch of diverse files, solid archiving won't help as much; the more similar the files are, the more important solid archiving becomes.
The dictionary is what really makes 7-Zip's LZMA so powerful. DEFLATE (used for Zip) uses a 32KB dictionary, and coupled with the lack of solid archiving, Zip has the compression equivalent of Alzheimer's. WinRAR's maximum dictionary size is 4MB. LZMA's maximum dictionary size is 4GB (though in practice, anything beyond 128MB is pretty unwieldy and 64MB is the most you can select from the GUI; plus, it doesn't make sense to use a dictionary larger than the size of your uncompressed data, and 7-Zip will automatically adjust the dictionary size down if the uncompressed data isn't that big). Take away the dictionary size and the solid compression, and LZMA loses a lot of its edge.
In the case of the DirectX runtimes, because of their repetitive nature and the large size of the uncompressed data, a large dictionary and solid compression really shines here, much more so than it would in other scenarios. My command line parameters set the main stream dictionary to 128MB, and the other much smaller streams to 16MB. For the 32-bit runtimes, where the total uncompressed size is less than 64MB, this isn't any different than the Ultra setting in the GUI, and 7-Zip will even reduce the dictionary down to 64MB. For the 64-bit runtimes, the extra dictionary size has only a modest effect because 64MB is already pretty big, and also because the data with the most similarity are already placed close to each other (by the ordering of the files). The other parameters (fast bytes and search cycles) basically makes the CPU work harder and look more closely when searching for patterns, but their effect is also somewhat limited. In all, these particular parameters are only slightly better than Ultra from the GUI, but I much rather prefer running a script than having to wade through a GUI (just as I prefer unattended installs over wading through installs manually).
Oh, and another caveat: Ultra from the GUI will apply the BCJ2 filter to anything that it thinks is an executable. This command line will apply it to everything. Which means that this command line should not be used if you are doing an archive with lots of non-executable code (in this case, the only non-executable is a tiny INF file, so it's okay). This also means that this command line will perform much better with files that don't get auto-detected (for example, *.ax files are executable, but are not recognized as such by 7-Zip, so an archive with a bunch of .ax files will do noticeably better with these parameters than with GUI-Ultra). If you want to use a 7z CLI for unattended compression but would prefer that 7-Zip auto-select BCJ2 for appropriate files, use -m0=LZMA:d27:fb=128:mc=256 (which is also much shorter than that big long line; for files that do get BCJ2'ed, it will just use the default settings for the minor streams).

dumpydooby said:
I would love to use it if you're willing to share. I really want to get into cooking. I just don't have time these days.
Here is a bit that one of my buddies wrote on compression, for those interested. He's actually discussing LZMA (which is what 7zip uses by default), which is similar to the LZ1 dictionary (the same dictionary used in LZX compression algorithms). This should help people to understand what settings to use depending on the situation.
Hehe. I've long been fascinated by compression algorithms ever since studying the original Lempel-Ziv algorithm some years ago.
The key here is the dictionary, which, in a simplified nutshell, stores patterns that have been encountered. You encounter pattern A, compress/encode it, and then the next time you see pattern A, since it's already in the dictionary, you can just use that. With a small dictionary, what happens is that you'll encounter pattern A, then pattern B, C, D, etc., and by the time you encounter pattern A again, it's been pushed out of the dictionary so that you can't re-use it, and thus you take a hit on your size. All compression algorithms basically work on eliminating repetition and patterns, so being able to recognize them is vital, and for dictionary-based algorithms (which comprise most mainstream general-purpose algorithms), a small dictionary forces you to forget what you saw earlier, thus hurting your ability to recognize those patterns and repetitions; small dictionary == amnesia.
Solid compression is also important because without it, you are using a separate dictionary for every file. Compress file 1, reset dictionary, compress file 2, reset dictionary, etc. In other words, regular non-solid compression == amnesia. With solid compression, you treat all the files as one big file and never reset your dictionary. The downside is that it's harder to get to a file in the middle or end of the archive, as it means that you must decompress everything before it to reconstruct the dictionary, and it also means that any damage to the archive will affect every file beyond the point of damage. The first problem is not an issue if you are extracting the whole archive anyway, and the second issue is really only a problem if you are using it for archival backup and can be mitigated with Reed-Solomon (WinRAR's recovery data, or something external, like PAR2 files). Solid archiving is very, very important if you have lots of files that are similar, as is the case for DirectX runtimes (since you have a dozen or so versions of what is basically the same DLL). For example, when I was compressing a few versions of a DVD drive's firmware some years ago, the first file in the archive was compressed to about 40% or so of the original size, but every subsequent file was compressed to less than 0.1% of their original size, since they were virtually duplicates of the first file (with only some minor differences). Of course, with a bunch of diverse files, solid archiving won't help as much; the more similar the files are, the more important solid archiving becomes.
The dictionary is what really makes 7-Zip's LZMA so powerful. DEFLATE (used for Zip) uses a 32KB dictionary, and coupled with the lack of solid archiving, Zip has the compression equivalent of Alzheimer's. WinRAR's maximum dictionary size is 4MB. LZMA's maximum dictionary size is 4GB (though in practice, anything beyond 128MB is pretty unwieldy and 64MB is the most you can select from the GUI; plus, it doesn't make sense to use a dictionary larger than the size of your uncompressed data, and 7-Zip will automatically adjust the dictionary size down if the uncompressed data isn't that big). Take away the dictionary size and the solid compression, and LZMA loses a lot of its edge.
In the case of the DirectX runtimes, because of their repetitive nature and the large size of the uncompressed data, a large dictionary and solid compression really shines here, much more so than it would in other scenarios. My command line parameters set the main stream dictionary to 128MB, and the other much smaller streams to 16MB. For the 32-bit runtimes, where the total uncompressed size is less than 64MB, this isn't any different than the Ultra setting in the GUI, and 7-Zip will even reduce the dictionary down to 64MB. For the 64-bit runtimes, the extra dictionary size has only a modest effect because 64MB is already pretty big, and also because the data with the most similarity are already placed close to each other (by the ordering of the files). The other parameters (fast bytes and search cycles) basically makes the CPU work harder and look more closely when searching for patterns, but their effect is also somewhat limited. In all, these particular parameters are only slightly better than Ultra from the GUI, but I much rather prefer running a script than having to wade through a GUI (just as I prefer unattended installs over wading through installs manually).
Oh, and another caveat: Ultra from the GUI will apply the BCJ2 filter to anything that it thinks is an executable. This command line will apply it to everything. Which means that this command line should not be used if you are doing an archive with lots of non-executable code (in this case, the only non-executable is a tiny INF file, so it's okay). This also means that this command line will perform much better with files that don't get auto-detected (for example, *.ax files are executable, but are not recognized as such by 7-Zip, so an archive with a bunch of .ax files will do noticeably better with these parameters than with GUI-Ultra). If you want to use a 7z CLI for unattended compression but would prefer that 7-Zip auto-select BCJ2 for appropriate files, use -m0=LZMA:d27:fb=128:mc=256 (which is also much shorter than that big long line; for files that do get BCJ2'ed, it will just use the default settings for the minor streams).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have no idea how much the geek in me loved this post. ^_^ I have a thing about compression, too, but I'm just not very well versed in it. I only know the basic details of compression.

Answered 2 of my questions I tried finding out the other day. Thank you guys. I learn so much here.

Android Users.. must read!Important Knowledge !

Android Terminology Guide
Hit thanks if i helped u !!
ADK: Android Development Kit, What people use to develop anything for the Android such as ROM's
The ADK (Android development kit) is divided into 3 parts
1. Android SDK (Software development Kit): used to make easy programs which only require touch & some sensors , e.g. Games
2. Android NDK ( Native Development Kit): this is used to Create apps which require Hardware or Use the native binaries & libraries of Android , eg. Camera , CyanogenMod Settings, Oxygen Settings , etc.
3. Android PDK ( Platform Development Kit): As the name suggests this is the main kit which allows to make all ".mk" files (eg. Android.mk , etc) & most of the files found on github
Basically Dev's like FXP , Z , Achotjan , kxhawkins , etc. Use the PDK to make AOSP/CM7 ROMs from source
& Also use NDK to edit the system apk's etc.. to make it stable
adb: Android Debug Bridge, a command-line debugging application included with the SDK. It provides tools to browse the device, copy tools on the device, & forward ports for debugging. If you are developing in Eclipse using the ADT Plugin, adb is integrated into your development environment.
AOSP: Android Open System Project, usually you will see this term when referring to a program or ROM. This will mean that the program or ROM was taken from Google & does not contain any modifications done by the phone Manufacturer or the phone service provider. This is Android the way Google intended.
Baseband or Radio: In communications & signal processing, the baseband describes signals & systems whose range of the frequencies measured from close to 0 hertz to a cut-off frequency, a maximum bandwidth or highest signal frequency; it is sometimes used to describe frequencies starting close to zero
Boot Loader/SPL: In literal terms, boot loader is code that is executed before any Operating System starts to run. The concept of boot loaders is universal to virtually all Operating systems that includes operating systems on your PC, laptop, Smartphone, & other such devices. Boot loaders basically package the instructions to boot operating system kernel & most of them also have their own debugging or modification environment. As the boot loader kicks off before any piece of software on your device, it makes it extremely processor specific & every motherboard has its own boot loader.
Boot Loader/SPL (Unlocked): A locked or unlocked boot loader is what gives you access to “root.” “Root” is another big word in the Android community. If you “root” a device, it means you have “super user” access or “administrator” access to the operating system that runs on your phone. Root access of your Android device gives you the ability to flash ROMs.
One of the most popular ROMs was created by a team called the CyanogenMod(CM), & their current rom is CM7, which is built on Android 2.3 Gingerbread. What this means is that if you have a phone that has an unlocked boot loader & root access, you can flash the CM7 ROM to your phone with a couple more steps. This also means that you can get access to most of the features in the latest version of Android that is commercially available, without having to wait for your manufacturer or carrier to give you an official update.
Boot Loop: Simply means something is preventing the phone from completing it's boot cycle & is stuck between the boot animation & the unlock screen, creating a looped animation. This is often fixed by either reloading a NAndroid, or Reflashing a ROM from the xRecovery/ClockworkMod Recovery/Flashtool.
Brick or Bricked: Jargon for a completely unrecoverable device, (no more than a brick or paperweight)
Note: It is my understanding that radio will boot first, followed by other systems. So it is IMPORTANT that your radio image/version will work with your SPL image/version. This is the one & only reason for phones being bricked. You cannot brick your phone by flashing a ROM or Boot image or recovery image. Once you flash the wrong radio for the SPL, the only known method of recovery is to send the phone back into SE for repair.
How do I know the phone is hard-bricked? A hard-bricked phone cannot boot into boot loader, recovery, or into normal operation modes. You cannot connect to a hard-bricked phone via adb or fastboot. You can only see one screen on the phone & it will be the first splash screen.
Bug or Software Bug: An Error or flaw in software that produces a failure or unexpected/unwanted result. Typically created from incorrect code, this is why some ROMs are better & smoother running than others because developers have taken the time to input "perfect" code (read put in a lot of hours & hard work)
Busybox: A single multicall binary that packages the functionality of most widely used standard Unix tools, BusyBox provides a fairly complete environment for any small or embedded system.
COMPCACHE: (compressed caching) is, in short, virtual swap, setting aside a certain percentage (usually 25%) of your RAM as 'compressed' swap. Compcache compresses the data that would normally go to swap, then moves it back into RAM, and reverses the process when moving it out of the 'compressed' swap. However, this is a classic space-time tradeoff. You effectively get more RAM from the compression, but it is slower than 'normal' RAM due to the CPU time required to compress and decompress the swapped pages.
ClockworkMod: A recovery program that is often used to apply updates, ROMs, or create a back up or restore a backup file
Dalvik: An open source, register-based virtual machine (VM) that’s part of the Android OS. The Dalvik VM executes files in the Dalvik Executable (.dex) format & relies on the Linux kernel for additional functionality like threading & low-level memory management. The virtual machine is register-based, and it can run classes compiled by a Java language compiler that have been transformed into its native format using the included "dx" tool.
Dalvik Cache: A program cache area for the program Dalvik. Dalvik is a java based virtual machine that is the basis for running your programs (the ones that have the .apk extension). In order to make access times faster (because there's not JIT (just in time) compiler installed by default), the dalvik-cache is the result of dalvik doing a optimization of the running program. It's similar to the prefetch files in Windows.
DDMS: Dalvik Debug Monitor Service, a GUI debugging application included with the SDK. It provides screen capture, log dump, and process examination capabilities. If you are developing in Eclipse using the ADT Plugin, DDMS is integrated into your development environment.
Deep Sleep: A state when the CPU is off, display dark, device is waiting for external input.
De-odex: Apk files have respective odexes that devs use to supposedly save space. Deodexing means you convert it back to a .dex file & put it back inside the apk. This allows you to easily replace files (not having to worry about odexes), but the main point was to deodex services.jar so that you can change all text to different colors (such as the clock color to white) & to deodex services.jar, you need to deodex everything.
Dev. or Developer: An individual that creates, or alters a file in such a manner as to advance the program
Drawable: A compiled visual resource that can be used as a background, title, or other part of the screen. A drawable is typically loaded into another UI element, for example as a background image. A drawable is not able to receive events, but does assign various other properties such as "state" and scheduling, to enable subclasses such as animation objects or image libraries. Many drawable objects are loaded from drawable resource files — xml or bitmap files that describe the image. Drawable resources are compiled into subclasses of android.graphics.drawable. For more information about drawables and other resources.
Fastboot: Protocol used to update the flash file system in Android devices from a host over USB. It allows flashing of unsigned partition images.
Flash: Rewrite the software/firmware on your phone using a computer to "flash" or completely rewrite the memory (ROM) of your phone. This is done using ODIN.
Flash Memory: a program technology that can be electrically erased & reprogrammed
Kernel: The main component of Android operating system.
It is a bridge between applications & the actual data processing done at the hardware level.
The kernel's responsibilities include managing the system's resources (the communication between hardware & software components).
[Usually as a basic component of an operating system, a kernel can provide the lowest-level abstraction layer for the resources
(especially processors & I/O devices) that application software must control to perform its function.
It typically makes these facilities available to application processes through inter-process communication mechanisms & system calls.
Operating system tasks are done differently by different kernels, depending on their design & implementation.]
Manifest File: An XML file that each application must define, to describe the application's package name, version, components (activities, intent filters, services), imported libraries, and describes the various activities, and so on. See The AndroidManifest.xml File for complete information.
Nine-patch / 9-patch / Ninepatch image
A re-sizeable bitmap resource that can be used for backgrounds or other images on the device.
Nandroid or Nandroid Backup: A file typically created in the custom recovery program, such as xRecovery, that is a carbon copy of whatever state your phone is in before a drastic change is made. The file then can be moved onto or off of the SD card for later use in case something should go wrong in the ROM or Update, or a Boot Loop occurs
ODIN: It is the program you can use to flash phones.
e.g. : 'Odin Multi-Downloader v3.95' is used to flash the Samsung Galaxy. It's usually included in firmware packs.
OEM: Original Equipment Manufacturer, the people who actually put together electronic hardware. Also refers to any equipment original to the phone, or produced by the company for the phone
OpenGL ES: Android provides OpenGL ES libraries that you can use for fast, complex 3D images. It is harder to use than a Canvas object, but better for 3D objects. The android.opengl and javax.microedition.khronos.opengles packages expose OpenGL ES functionality.
OS: Operating system, I.E. Windows Vista, LINUX or MAC or Android
OTA: Over-the-Air; method T-Mobile, & some other phone companies, uses to update Android phones. The new versions of Android are developed by Google & then released to OEM's, Sony Ericsson in our case. The OEM then writes drivers that enable the new software to work on the phone's hardware. They also develop any specialized UI (user interface), like Timescape & Mediascape, or other software they want to include. Once this is complete, they turn it over to the cell phone company, (e.g.)Tmobile, who then have to do the final checks to make sure the update works, & then distributes it over there data network using their cell transmitters.
Overclocking (OC): Speeding up the CPU past the factory presets to achieve a faster & more responsive device (prolonged run can be injurious to your device, so be careful.)
ROM: Read Only Memory, a program used to make changes to anything from the look of the home screen to icons to custom boot animation
Root: Common word associated with giving a user "super user" access to their phones programming & other various aspects that would normally not be possible, also known as "Jailbroken" for iPhone's, "Administrator Rights" in Windows OS.
Shell or SSH: The shell is the layer of programming that understands & executes the commands a user enters. In some systems, the shell is called a command interpreter. A shell usually implies an interface with a command syntax (think of the DOS operating system & its "C:>" prompts & user commands such as "dir" & "edit"). secure shell or ssh is a network protocol that allows data to be exchanged using a secure channel between two networked devices
SQLite: An embedded relational database management system contained in a relatively small (~275 kB) C programming library. It is multitasking concerning reads. Writes can be done only one-at-a-time. It is a popular choice for local/client storage on web browsers. It has many bindings to programming languages. It is arguably the most widely used database engine, as it is used today by several widespread browsers, operating systems, embedded systems among others
Stock: Simply means an unaltered state, such as when you first purchase your phone fromVerizon/Your Service Provider or when you repair your phone using PC Companion or SE Update Service(SEUS)
SU: "Super user", or root permissions
SWAP: is, in short, virtual RAM. With swap, a small portion of the hard drive is set aside and used like RAM. The computer will attempt to keep as much information as possible in RAM until the RAM is full. At that point, the computer will begin moving inactive blocks of memory (called pages) to the hard disk, freeing up RAM for active processes. If one of the pages on the hard disk needs to be accessed again, it will be moved back into RAM, and a different inactive page in RAM will be moved onto the hard disk ('swapped'). The trade off is disks and SD cards are considerably slower than physical RAM, so when something needs to be swapped, there is a noticeable performance hit.
Unlike traditional swap, Android's Memory Manager kills inactive processes to free up memory. Android signals to the process, then the process will usually write out a small bit of specific information about its state (for example, Google Maps may write out the map view coordinates; Browser might write the URL of the page being viewed) and then the process exits. When you next access that application, it is restarted: the application is loaded from storage, and retrieves the state information that it saved when it last closed. In some applications, this makes it seem as if the application never closed at all. This is not much different from traditional swap, except that Android apps are specially programed to write out very specific information, making Android's Memory Manager more efficient that swap.
Theme: A set of icons, backgrounds & app trays that change the aesthetics of the overall look of the Android & its applications. It has a set of properties (text size, background color, and so on) bundled together to define various default display settings. Android provides a few standard themes, listed in R.style (starting with "Theme_").
TUN/TAP: Refers to a network TUNnel, operates within layer 3 packets, or ip packets. Packets sent by a system via a TUN/TAP device are delivered to a user-space program that attaches itself to the device. A user space program may also pass packets into a TUN/TAP device. In this case TUN/TAP device delivers (or "injects") these packets to the operating system's network stack thus emulating their reception from an external source.
Underclocking(UC): Slowing down the CPU mainly to limit battery usage
Undervolting(UV): Basically keeping the clock speed same (or overclocking it) & reduce the voltage at each cpu cycle.
xRecovery: A recovery program based on the ClockworkMod Recovery sources used to apply updates, ROMs, or create a back up or restore a backup file
File Types:
.dex: Compiled Android application code file. Android programs are compiled into .dex (Dalvik Executable) files, which are in turn zipped into a single .apk file on the device. .dex files can be created by automatically translating compiled applications written in the Java programming language.
.sbf: Summation Briefcase File
.apk or APK's: An .apk file extension denotes an Android Package (APK) file, an .apk file can be opened & inspected using common archive tools. Each Android application is compiled and packaged in a single file that includes all of the application's code (.dex files), resources, assets, and manifest file. The application package file can have any name but must use the .apk extension. For example: myExampleAppname.apk. For convenience, an application package file is often referred to as an ".apk".
.tar: Similar to a zip file(derived from tape archive), a tar file archives multiple files into one file
.tgz: TGZ files (gnu-zipped .tar file) are commonly used as install packages for Slackware Linux.
pheeeeww!!This took sometime!!
Well this is all I can think of off the top of my head but as I think of more I will edit them in here & I encourage the mods to put things that I either forgot or just simply am not aware of. Also I request fellow user to suggest any terms frequently used & not added or any discrepancies found, kindly PM me!!
Thank you & happy hacking/flashing!!
_____________________________________
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Core Clock Speed: -
-----------------------
It is the actual clock speed that the CPU is running at. "Not the multiplied speed."
It's good to remember a CPU's performance is also effected by its memory's speed.
Similar rules exist for the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit).

Good beginning, I think. In a few days I will start to translate in german, maybe we can attach this translation as a pdf?

excellent work dude keep it up

U rock dude keep it up..much helpful infrmtn esp for those who just flash roms without knowledge(like me)

Can u explain what is "set 777 permission" and 766, 755
Sent from my GT-S5670L using xda premium

Deshabilitado said:
Can u explain what is "set 777 permission" and 766, 755
Sent from my GT-S5670L using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Those digits represents the permissions for all users 1st digit for user 2nd for group 3rd for other..1 denotes execute,2 denotes write and 4 denotes read so if u add 1+2+4=7..hope u got it...

Try this link to understand file permissions..
http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/filepermissions.html

asdfglkjhg said:
excellent work dude keep it up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
martin_s5670 said:
Good beginning, I think. In a few days I will start to translate in german, maybe we can attach this translation as a pdf?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
vijayanandssj4 said:
U rock dude keep it up..much helpful infrmtn esp for those who just flash roms without knowledge(like me)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes we can do tht , will start the translation!
and thnx hope the knowledge helped u !!

udit.kumar said:
yes we can do tht , will start the translation!
and thnx hope the knowledge helped u !!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now I found a good FAQ in german with more or less the same content, I will give the link (post2), better than a translation from me.
http://www.android-hilfe.de/samsung...4-unbedingt-lesen-die-faq-fuer-unser-ace.html

Thanks a lot for this useful info ...
Also the Fix Permissions Guide helped a lot to understand ...

It helps me to understand the various terms. Thank you!

Gr8 n very useful stuff

suhs_20 said:
Thanks a lot for this useful info ...
Also the Fix Permissions Guide helped a lot to understand ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
glad to knw

adissan said:
It helps me to understand the various terms. Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you are welcome
PS - Hit thanks!

Thank you. Its very useful information

Android Word Help - Dictionary

Here i want to share something useful with you all guys.
hope it will be beneficial to you all

Definitions referenced from the Android Developers Guide or the FreeYourAndroid.com dictionary.
.APK
Android application package file. Each Android application is compiled and packaged in a single file that includes all of the application’s code (.dex file), resources, assets, and manifest file. The application package file can have any name but must use the .apk extension. For example: myExampleAppname.apk. For convenience, an application package file is often referred to as an “.apk”.
.DEX
Dalvik Executable. Compiled Android application code file. Android programs are compiled into .dex files, which are in turn zipped into a single .apk file on the device. .dex files can be created by automatically translating compiled applications written in the Java programming language.
Action
An action is a description of something that an Intent sender wants done. An action is a string value assigned to an Intent. Action strings can be defined by Android or by a third-party developer. For example, android.intent.action.VIEW for a Web URL, or com.example.rumbler.SHAKE_PHONE for a custom application to vibrate the phone.
Activity
An activity is a single screen in an application, with supporting Java code, derived from the Activity class. Most commonly, an activity is visibly represented by a full screen window that can receive and handle UI events and perform complex tasks, because of the Window it uses to render its window. Though an Activity is typically full screen, it can also be floating or transparent.
adb
Android Debug Bridge, a command-line debugging application included with the SDK. It provides tools to browse the device, copy tools on the device, and forward ports for debugging. If you are developing in Eclipse using the ADT Plugin, adb is integrated into your development environment.
AndroidManifest.xml file
Every application must have an AndroidManifest.xml file (with precisely that name) in its root directory of the source tree. The manifest presents essential information about the application to the Android system, information the system must have before it can run any of the application’s code.
Application
From a component perspective, an Android application consists of one or more activities, services, listeners, and intent receivers. From a source file perspective, an Android application consists of code, resources, assets, and a single manifest. During compilation, these files are packaged in a single file called an application package file (.apk).
Boot
In contrast to other Linux-based operating systems, Android has a boot partition (containing the contents of a boot.img file), as opposed to a direct-booting system. This partition contains a read-only ‘ramdisk’, and a couple of other files. The ramdisk contains files critical to booting, such as init.rc and default.prop. This ‘partition’ actually sets up the directory structure of the device, having empty folders for /data, /dev, /proc, /sbin, /sys and /system.
Bootloader
The bootloader, is firmware on the phone which runs on every startup. Sometimes it may be desirable to change the version of the bootloader, or to load a different bootloader entirely to enable different features or a completely different OS. The current version of the bootloader can be viewed by entering bootloader mode, the process of which is different for each and every device or manufacturer.
Broadcast Receiver
An application class that listens for Intents that are broadcast, rather than being sent to a single target application/activity. The system delivers a broadcast Intent to all interested broadcast receivers, which handle the Intent sequentially.
Canvas
A drawing surface that handles compositing of the actual bits against a Bitmap or Surface object. It has methods for standard computer drawing of bitmaps, lines, circles, rectangles, text, and so on, and is bound to a Bitmap or Surface. Canvas is the simplest, easiest way to draw 2D objects on the screen. However, it does not support hardware acceleration, as OpenGL ES does. The base class is Canvas.
Content Provider
A data-abstraction layer that you can use to safely expose your application’s data to other applications. A content provider is built on the ContentProvider class, which handles content query strings of a specific format to return data in a specific format.
Dalvik
The Android platform’s virtual machine. The Dalvik VM is an interpreter-only virtual machine that executes files in the Dalvik Executable (.dex) format, a format that is optimized for efficient storage and memory-mappable execution. The virtual machine is register-based, and it can run classes compiled by a Java language compiler that have been transformed into its native format using the included “dx” tool. The VM runs on top of Posix-compliant operating systems, which it relies on for underlying functionality (such as threading and low level memory management). The Dalvik core class library is intended to provide a familiar development base for those used to programming with Java Standard Edition, but it is geared specifically to the needs of a small mobile device.
Data
The data partition on the device contains the user-related data, such as installed applications and settings for those apps, as well as your SQLite database containing Android settings and messages. Normally, the directory /data/app is off-limits through the ‘adb shell’ command, as well as other terminal applications that can run on the device, since this directory contains the apk files for apps. On a rooted phone, using the ‘su’ command will allow full access to this partition. This partition can be flashed using Fastboot or Nandroid.
DDMS
Dalvik Debug Monitor Service, a GUI debugging application included with the SDK. It provides screen capture, log dump, and process examination capabilities. If you are developing in Eclipse using the ADT Plugin, DDMS is integrated into your development environment.
Deodex
Deodex is the process of combining the already optimized application elements found in the .odex file and compressing them into the .apk file with the rest of the application. The main reason for doing this allows for application and ROM themers to edit the graphics and settings in the application, whereas they would be unable to in the .odex file. There is really no reason to deodex an application and/or ROM other than to allow theming or other modifications of an application which you do not have access to the sources of.
Dialog
A floating window that that acts as a lightweight form. A dialog can have button controls only and is intended to perform a simple action (such as button choice) and perhaps return a value. A dialog is not intended to persist in the history stack, contain complex layout, or perform complex actions. Android provides a default simple dialog for you with optional buttons, though you can define your own dialog layout. The base class for dialogs is Dialog.
Drawable
A compiled visual resource that can be used as a background, title, or other part of the screen. A drawable is typically loaded into another UI element, for example as a background image. A drawable is not able to receive events, but does assign various other properties such as “state” and scheduling, to enable subclasses such as animation objects or image libraries. Many drawable objects are loaded from drawable resource files — xml or bitmap files that describe the image. Drawable resources are compiled into subclasses of android.graphics.drawable.
Fastboot
Fastboot is a means which allows the user to execute or Flash an img file to their device. Some devices and/or bootloaders allow this access, while others do not. All Nexus branded devices allow such access when unlocked.
Flash
Flashing is the process of writing data to the internal memory on your phone. Normally, you would flash a ROM image to the phone, which would give you a different version of system software on your phone. Flashing can also refer to updating/writing to any of the other parts of the phone, such as the SPL, Radio etc.
Flash Memory
Flash memory, also known as NAND memory, is nonvolatile – keeping information even when the device is off. Flash memory in the device is equivalent to the hard drive in a computer. This is where the device’s operating system (sometimes called firmware) and applications are stored. Flash memory is slower than RAM, but is (almost always) faster than SD cards.
Logcat
While in adb (see ADB), type in “adb logcat > logcat.txt”. This will help you when resolving issues and bugs. There are also tools in the market you can use for this, one of which is called aLogcat. It can show different categories (severity of errors ect.) too, which is something adb logcat cannot do.
Market (also Play Store)
The market on Android is a place where you can purchase or download applications for your phone. When you download through the market, the installation process is transparent (as in you don’t have to deal with the APK files yourself), and there is the facility to rate apps and post comments which are visible to other users. Frequently, the developers of apps actually take onboard the feedback in the comments (mainly the smaller apps with slightly less feedback to sift through).
When an app is installed from the market, it is copied to ‘/data/app/apkname.apk’, as the act of ‘installing’. An app can store its data in the folder ‘/data/data/apkname’. It is possible to clear the data stored by an application by using the Manage Applications feature in Settings | Applications | Manage Applications.
Intent
A message object that you can use to launch or communicate with other applications/activities asynchronously. An Intent object is an instance of Intent. It includes several criteria fields that you can supply, to determine what application/activity receives the Intent and what the receiver does when handling the Intent. Available criteria include the desired action, a category, a data string, the MIME type of the data, a handling class, and others. An application sends an Intent to the Android system, rather than sending it directly to another application/activity. The application can send the Intent to a single target application or it can send it as a broadcast, which can in turn be handled by multiple applications sequentially. The Android system is responsible for resolving the best-available receiver for each Intent, based on the criteria supplied in the Intent and the Intent Filters defined by other applications.
Intent Filter
A filter object that an application declares in its manifest file, to tell the system what types of Intents each of its components is willing to accept and with what criteria. Through an intent filter, an application can express interest in specific data types, Intent actions, URI formats, and so on. When resolving an Intent, the system evaluates all of the available intent filters in all applications and passes the Intent to the application/activity that best matches the Intent and criteria.
Layout Resource
An XML file that describes the layout of an Activity screen.
Manifest File
An XML file that each application must define, to describe the application’s package name, version, components (activities, intent filters, services), imported libraries, and describes the various activities, and so on.
Nandroid
Nandroid is used to backup or restore backups from Recovery. You can chose to either do a regular backup (Phone only) or a backup + sd-ext (Phone + Apps2sd ext.)Both will backup your whole system, the second will include apps saved on your sdcard’s sd-ext.
Nine-patch / 9-patch / Ninepatch image
A resizeable bitmap resource that can be used for backgrounds or other images on the device.
Odex
Odex stands for “Optimized Dalvik Executable” file. The Android system, as identified above, utilizes compressed data stored in the .apk file at runtime. To speed up this process, the most critical elements of application will be placed uncompressed in an .odex file, thus enabling the Android OS to quickly interpret that important information before it continues to parse the rest of the application. Stock ROMs will come from the manufacturer as “odexed”, meaning that the application(s) will have a .apk file and an .odex file, i.e. Calendar.apk and Calendar.odex.
OpenGL ES
Android provides OpenGL ES libraries that you can use for fast, complex 3D images. It is harder to use than a Canvas object, but better for 3D objects. The android.opengl and javax.microedition.khronos.opengles packages expose OpenGL ES functionality.
Radio
The Radio on a mobile phone is the part of the phone that deals with mobile connections. It handles talking to the CDMA/GSM/LTE/3G/4G network, Bluetooth, WiFi and GPS. The radio contains software that controls how it operates, and newer versions of radio firmware are made available from time to time via system updates. These updates are transparent to the user, although users who elect to install custom software can update their radio using an update.zip file made available by members of the modding community.
Flashing the radio is potentially risky, and you should NEVER pull the battery out of a phone that is flashing the radio. If you do so, it is possible your phone will be bricked. Nevertheless, it can give improved battery life, signal strength and data performance, so is often done by users moving to later versions of ROMs. Care should be taken to only flash the correct type of radio to a phone. NEVER attempt to flash a CDMA phone with a GSM radio or vice-versa. It is likely you will brick the phone if you attempt to do so.
Recovery
The recovery partition is a boot-mode for your phone that allows you to wipe your settings from the Data partition of the phone (a hard wipe), or perform an update using an update.zip file on the root of the microSD card. It is common (although not necessary) to flash a patched Recovery image, such as TWRP or ClockworkMod Recovery. This allows you to run Nandroid backup from the device, and flash modifications, such as files to the device, essentially becoming a means to install software to the device. Recovery mode is separate from ‘normal’ mode, and can be entered by holding down home whilst turning the phone on.
Resources
Nonprogrammatic application components that are external to the compiled application code, but which can be loaded from application code using a well-known reference format. Android supports a variety of resource types, but a typical application’s resources would consist of UI strings, UI layout components, graphics or other media files, and so on. An application uses resources to efficiently support localization and varied device profiles and states. For example, an application would include a separate set of resources for each supported local or device type, and it could include layout resources that are specific to the current screen orientation (landscape or portrait). The resources of an application are always stored in the res/* subfolders of the project.
ROM
ROM is literally “read-only memory” but its usage has changed over time. Today ROM can refer to the non-volatile area of a device’s flash memory on which read-only data resides or the packed image to be written to that flash area.
Root
Root is the name of the highest level superuser (su) on Unix-like systems such as Android. The root user, and applications run by the root user, have administrative access to protected files and services which makes it dangerous for normal daily use.
A ‘rooted’ device is one which has been hacked to provide privilege escalation from a standard user to superuser. Rooting a device is usually the first step in installing cooked ROMs.
S-OFF/S-ON
This refers to an unlocked/locked NAND drive. HTC locks the NAND on their phones to prevent writing to the system partition. S-OFF can generally be obtained by an exploit, by flashing an engineering SPL, or by using a process put in place by HTC.
Service
An object of class Service that runs in the background (without any UI presence) to perform various persistent actions, such as playing music or monitoring network activity.
SPL
The Secondary Program Loader is a piece of bootcode that initiates the startup of the phone, displaying the initial splash screen for the device, and loading the initial files from ROM.
It checks to see if a button combination is pressed on bootup (such as that to enter Recovery Mode or the bootloader), and loads the relevant system software. If no special instruction is given by holding keys, the bootloader loads the normal system software by initializing the boot process from the boot partition.
Flashing your SPL is risky, as the process failing will probably result in a broken, or bricked phone, since the SPL is executed very early on in the boot process, and any error here will prevent access to the recovery or bootloader features.
If you do flash the SPL though, it unlocks the Carrier-ID CID from the device, essentially allowing any RUU to be installed to the device, and allows flashing alternative or custom bootscreens.
Stock
The term stock is often used to refer to a file or part of the software which is unmodified or untouched by developers. For example, a stock ROM would be one which was produced by HTC or Samsung and which has not been modified or rooted by someone. The term is often used when comparing performance of different ROMs, as a way to refer to the phone as it came out the box.
SU
su (substitute user) is a Linux command which, when run without a username parameter, gives the user full ‘root’ permissions. By default, this command binary (ie. Linux equivalent of an executable file) is not included on Android systems, but the process of “rooting” a phone copies this file to the ‘/system/bin/’ directory thereby enabling the command. Since root privileges can be abused by malicious applications it’s highly recommended to install an app to grant and manage access to su, similar to UAC on Windows. Many ROMs include the app called “SuperSU” for this.
Surface
An object of type Surface representing a block of memory that gets composited to the screen. A Surface holds a Canvas object for drawing, and provides various helper methods to draw layers and resize the surface. You should not use this class directly; use SurfaceView instead.
SurfaceView
A View object that wraps a Surface for drawing, and exposes methods to specify its size and format dynamically. A SurfaceView provides a way to draw independently of the UI thread for resource-intensive operations (such as games or camera previews), but it uses extra memory as a result. SurfaceView supports both Canvas and OpenGL ES graphics. The base class is SurfaceView.
System
The /system directory on your device is where the main operational software for the Android OS is stored. It has a number of sub-directories of which /system/apps (where application apk’s are stored) is probably the only one users would have need to access. The /system folder is read-only by default and needs remounted via ‘adb’ to allow write access.
Theme
A set of properties (text size, background color, and so on) bundled together to define various default display settings. Android provides a few standard themes, listed in R.style (starting with “Theme_”).
Update.zip
An update.zip (does not have to actually be called update.zip if you have a patched Recovery image) is a file containing some files which will be copied to the phone’s internal memory. Normally, a new system update or ROM is stored in the file, but update.zip files are commonly used to install modifications such as themes or applications that are installed on the System partition to prevent uninstallation.
To flash one of these files, which commonly would contain a custom ROM for your phone, you would boot your phone to a patched recovery image (whether using Fastboot, or the home+power method if you have a patched Recovery image flashed on your phone)
Update.zip files are cryptographically signed, and more information on how to sign your own files can be found online.
URIs in Android
Android uses URI strings as the basis for requesting data in a content provider (such as to retrieve a list of contacts) and for requesting actions in an Intent (such as opening a Web page in a browser). The URI scheme and format is specialized according to the type of use, and an application can handle specific URI schemes and strings in any way it wants. Some URI schemes are reserved by system components. For example, requests for data from a content provider must use the content://. In an Intent, a URI using an http:// scheme will be handled by the browser.
View
An object that draws to a rectangular area on the screen and handles click, keystroke, and other interaction events. A View is a base class for most layout components of an Activity or Dialog screen (text boxes, windows, and so on). It receives calls from its parent object (see viewgroup, below)to draw itself, and informs its parent object about where and how big it would like to be (which may or may not be respected by the parent).
Viewgroup
A container object that groups a set of child Views. The viewgroup is responsible for deciding where child views are positioned and how large they can be, as well as for calling each to draw itself when appropriate. Some viewgroups are invisible and are for layout only, while others have an intrinsic UI (for instance, a scrolling list box). Viewgroups are all in the widget package, but extend ViewGroup.
Widget
One of a set of fully implemented View subclasses that render form elements and other UI components, such as a text box or popup menu. Because a widget is fully implemented, it handles measuring and drawing itself and responding to screen events. Widgets are all in the android.widget package.
Window
In an Android application, an object derived from the abstract class Window that specifies the elements of a generic window, such as the look and feel (title bar text, location and content of menus, and so on). Dialog and Activity use an implementation of this class to render a window. You do not need to implement this class or use windows in your application.
Zipalign
zipalign is an archive alignment tool that provides important optimization to Android application (.apk) files. The purpose is to ensure that all uncompressed data starts with a particular alignment relative to the start of the file. Specifically, it causes all uncompressed data within the .apk, such as images or raw files, to be aligned on 4-byte boundaries. The benefit is a reduction in the amount of RAM consumed when running the application.

Reserved for Future Words and updates

Just post here if anything is missing

[Android] Word Help - Dictionary

Here i want to share something useful with you all guys.
hope it will be beneficial to you all

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Best android app to turn into usb drive

[FAQ] Android related terms and abbreviations

I'm making this "DICTIONARY" for android abbreviations & terminology and also about Moto G
use this if Moto G is your first android,if you are new at XDA or if you have any doubt
Thanks to @kloud_ and @appdroid for making other guides that i gonna merge and adapt with this one
Ctrl+F is your new best friend,use it
ANDROID REFERENCE LIST
ADK: Android Development Kit, What people use to develop anything for the Android such as APPs and ROM's
adb: Android Debug Bridge, a command-line debugging application included with the SDK. It provides tools to browse the device, copy tools on the device, & forward ports for debugging. If you are developing in Eclipse using the ADT Plugin, adb is integrated into your development environment.
Android Unveiled on 5 November 2007, Android is a mobile operating system running on the Linux kernel developed by Google.
AOSP: Android Open System Project, usually you will see this term when referring to a program or ROM. This will mean that the program or ROM was taken from Google & does not contain any modifications done by the phone Manufacturer or the phone service provider. This is Android the way Google intended.
ART - successor of Dalvik, a virtual machine (VM) that’s part of the Android OS. ART is faster than Dalvik and saves more energy
Baseband or Radio: In communications & signal processing, the baseband describes signals & systems whose range of the frequencies measured from close to 0 hertz to a cut-off frequency, a maximum bandwidth or highest signal frequency; it is sometimes used to describe frequencies starting close to zero
Binary - (sometimes called bin's) a group of executable files.
Bloatware:unnecessary features that are not used by end users and come with the phone (like Samsung touchwiz or other APPs) (luckly Moto G is almost a pure/stock android)
BootLoader: In literal terms, boot loader is code that is executed before any Operating System starts to run. The concept of boot loaders is universal to virtually all Operating systems that includes operating systems on your PC, laptop, Smartphone, & other such devices. Boot loaders basically package the instructions to boot operating system kernel & most of them also have their own debugging or modification environment. As the boot-loader kicks off before any piece of software on your device, it makes it extremely processor specific & every motherboard has its own bootloader.
Boot Loader(Unlocked): A locked or unlocked boot loader is what gives you access to “root.” “Root” is another big word in the Android community. If you “root” a device, it means you have “super user” access or “administrator” access to the operating system that runs on your phone. Root access of your Android device gives you the ability to flash ROMs. Alert:unlocking your Moto G boot-loader will void your warranty
Boot Loop: Simply means something is preventing the phone from completing it's boot cycle & is stuck between the boot animation & the unlock screen, creating a looped animation. This is often fixed by either reloading a NAndroid, or Reflashing a ROM from the xRecovery/ClockworkMod Recovery/Flashtool.
Brick or Bricked: Jargon for a completely unrecoverable device, (no more than a brick or paperweight)
Bug or Software Bug: An Error or flaw in software that produces a failure or unexpected/unwanted result. Typically created from incorrect code, this is why some ROMs are better & smoother running than others because developers have taken the time to input "perfect" code (read put in a lot of hours & hard work)
Busybox: A single multicall binary that packages the functionality of most widely used standard Unix tools, BusyBox provides a fairly complete environment for any small or embedded system.
CDMA/GSM - A type of network communication between phones and carriers. GSM phones normally are included with SIM Cards that authorize them onto the network. CDMA have this authorization built in and do not need a sim card.
COMPCACHE: (compressed caching) is, in short, virtual swap, setting aside a certain percentage (usually 25%) of your RAM as 'compressed' swap. Compcache compresses the data that would normally go to swap, then moves it back into RAM, and reverses the process when moving it out of the 'compressed' swap. However, this is a classic space-time tradeoff. You effectively get more RAM from the compression, but it is slower than 'normal' RAM due to the CPU time required to compress and decompress the swapped pages.
ClockworkMod - CWR - CWM: A recovery program that is often used to apply updates, ROMs, or create a back up or restore a backup file
Dalvik: An open source, register-based virtual machine (VM) that’s part of the Android OS. The Dalvik VM executes files in the Dalvik Executable (.dex) format & relies on the Linux kernel for additional functionality like threading & low-level memory management. The virtual machine is register-based, and it can run classes compiled by a Java language compiler that have been transformed into its native format using the included "dx" tool.
Dalvik Cache: A program cache area for the program Dalvik. Dalvik is a java based virtual machine that is the basis for running your programs (the ones that have the .apk extension). In order to make access times faster (because there's not JIT (just in time) compiler installed by default), the dalvik-cache is the result of dalvik doing a optimization of the running program. It's similar to the prefetch files in Windows.
DDMS: Dalvik Debug Monitor Service, a GUI debugging application included with the SDK. It provides screen capture, log dump, and process examination capabilities. If you are developing in Eclipse using the ADT Plugin, DDMS is integrated into your development environment.
Deep Sleep: A state when the CPU is off, display dark, device is waiting for external input.
De-odex: Apk files have respective odexes that devs use to supposedly save space. Deodexing means you convert it back to a .dex file & put it back inside the apk. This allows you to easily replace files (not having to worry about odexes), but the main point was to deodex services.jar so that you can change all text to different colors (such as the clock color to white) & to deodex services.jar, you need to deodex everything.
Dev. or Developer: An individual that creates, or alters a file in such a manner as to advance the program
Drawable: A compiled visual resource that can be used as a background, title, or other part of the screen. A drawable is typically loaded into another UI element, for example as a background image. A drawable is not able to receive events, but does assign various other properties such as "state" and scheduling, to enable subclasses such as animation objects or image libraries. Many drawable objects are loaded from drawable resource files — xml or bitmap files that describe the image. Drawable resources are compiled into subclasses of android.graphics.drawable. For more information about drawables and other resources.
Execute - To "run" or "start" a binary
Fastboot: Protocol used to update the flash file system in Android devices from a host over USB. It allows flashing of unsigned partition images.
Flash - Flashing : The process of applying a firmware image (or ROM) to a device. It generally entails a very specific order of steps. Failing to complete any one of these steps properly may result in soft/hard) bricking
Flash Memory: a program technology that can be electrically erased & reprogrammed
FOTA - "Firmware over the air" this normally refers to ROM's but can refer to radio firmware (see OTA)
Kernel: The main component of Android operating system.
It is a bridge between applications & the actual data processing done at the hardware level.
The kernel's responsibilities include managing the system's resources (the communication between hardware & software components).
[Usually as a basic component of an operating system, a kernel can provide the lowest-level abstraction layer for the resources
(especially processors & I/O devices) that application software must control to perform its function.
It typically makes these facilities available to application processes through inter-process communication mechanisms & system calls.
Operating system tasks are done differently by different kernels, depending on their design & implementation.]
Governor - A system embedded into the kernel to automatically change the current working CPU frequency depending on the workload. It would only go up to what it is overclocked (or underclocked) to, this is called the maximum frequency. It would not drop bellow the (just as easily configurable) minimum frequency.
Jelly Bean - JB - Android from 4.1 to 4.3
JDK - "Java Development Kit" an SDK for the java platform. It is needed to run the Android SDK.
JRE - "Java Runtime Environment" a collection of binarys and files to allow java software to execute.
KANG - The process of creating a code based of someone else's code.
Kit Kat - KK - Android 4.4 the newest android available (supported by Moto G)
Library's/Libs - a set of instructions for applications to use to function. A functioning camera lib would allow the camera to be used.
Logcat :A debugging tool built into Android devices that displays system logs as they occur. See Logcat.
Manifest File: An XML file that each application must define, to describe the application's package name, version, components (activities, intent filters, services), imported libraries, and describes the various activities, and so on. See The AndroidManifest.xml File for complete information.
Nine-patch / 9-patch / Ninepatch image
A re-sizeable bitmap resource that can be used for backgrounds or other images on the device.
Nandroid or Nandroid Backup: A file typically created in the custom recovery program, such as xRecovery, that is a carbon copy of whatever state your phone is in before a drastic change is made. The file then can be moved onto or off of the SD card for later use in case something should go wrong in the ROM or Update, or a Boot Loop occurs
OEM: Original Equipment Manufacturer, the people who actually put together electronic hardware. Also refers to any equipment original to the phone, or produced by the company for the phone
OpenGL ES: Android provides OpenGL ES libraries that you can use for fast, complex 3D images. It is harder to use than a Canvas object, but better for 3D objects. The android.opengl and javax.microedition.khronos.opengles packages expose OpenGL ES functionality.
Open-Source - (not to be confused with free) A piece of software that is free to edit, use, distribute and share with no charge.
OS: Operating system, I.E. Windows Vista, LINUX or MAC or Android
OTA: Over-the-Air; method T-Mobile, & some other phone companies, uses to update Android phones. The new versions of Android are developed by Google & then released to OEM's, Sony Ericsson in our case. The OEM then writes drivers that enable the new software to work on the phone's hardware. They also develop any specialized UI (user interface), like Timescape & Mediascape, or other software they want to include. Once this is complete, they turn it over to the cell phone company, (e.g.)Tmobile, who then have to do the final checks to make sure the update works, & then distributes it over there data network using their cell transmitters.
Overclocking (OC): Speeding up the CPU past the factory presets to achieve a faster & more responsive device (prolonged run can be injurious to your device, so be careful.)
RAM- Could be one of three meanings: 1. Memory for the CPU to process processes. 2. Random Access Memory, a place where information can be used, executed from, modified, or deleted
Recovery - Its a dedicated Android partition, that has Recovery console installed. This is invisible during normal operation of the android device.
ROM: Read Only Memory, a program used to make changes to anything from the look of the home screen to icons to custom boot animation
Root: Common word associated with giving a user "super user" access to their phones programming & other various aspects that would normally not be possible, also known as "Jailbroken" for iPhone's, "Administrator Rights" in Windows OS.
Shell or SSH: The shell is the layer of programming that understands & executes the commands a user enters. In some systems, the shell is called a command interpreter. A shell usually implies an interface with a command syntax (think of the DOS operating system & its "C:>" prompts & user commands such as "dir" & "edit"). secure shell or ssh is a network protocol that allows data to be exchanged using a secure channel between two networked devices
SQLite: An embedded relational database management system contained in a relatively small (~275 kB) C programming library. It is multitasking concerning reads. Writes can be done only one-at-a-time. It is a popular choice for local/client storage on web browsers. It has many bindings to programming languages. It is arguably the most widely used database engine, as it is used today by several widespread browsers, operating systems, embedded systems among others
Stock Android : Simply means an unaltered state, such as when you first purchase your phone fromVerizon/Your Service Provider or when you repair your phone using PC Companion or SE Update Service(SEUS)
SU: "Super user", or root permissions
Superuser: A program, which gives unlimited access privileges to perform any or all operations on the operating system.
SWAP: is, in short, virtual RAM. With swap, a small portion of the hard drive is set aside and used like RAM. The computer will attempt to keep as much information as possible in RAM until the RAM is full. At that point, the computer will begin moving inactive blocks of memory (called pages) to the hard disk, freeing up RAM for active processes. If one of the pages on the hard disk needs to be accessed again, it will be moved back into RAM, and a different inactive page in RAM will be moved onto the hard disk ('swapped'). The trade off is disks and SD cards are considerably slower than physical RAM, so when something needs to be swapped, there is a noticeable performance hit.
Unlike traditional swap, Android's Memory Manager kills inactive processes to free up memory. Android signals to the process, then the process will usually write out a small bit of specific information about its state (for example, Google Maps may write out the map view coordinates; Browser might write the URL of the page being viewed) and then the process exits. When you next access that application, it is restarted: the application is loaded from storage, and retrieves the state information that it saved when it last closed. In some applications, this makes it seem as if the application never closed at all. This is not much different from traditional swap, except that Android apps are specially programed to write out very specific information, making Android's Memory Manager more efficient that swap.
Theme: A set of icons, backgrounds & app trays that change the aesthetics of the overall look of the Android & its applications. It has a set of properties (text size, background color, and so on) bundled together to define various default display settings. Android provides a few standard themes, listed in R.style (starting with "Theme_").
TUN/TAP: Refers to a network TUNnel, operates within layer 3 packets, or ip packets. Packets sent by a system via a TUN/TAP device are delivered to a user-space program that attaches itself to the device. A user space program may also pass packets into a TUN/TAP device. In this case TUN/TAP device delivers (or "injects") these packets to the operating system's network stack thus emulating their reception from an external source.
Underclocking(UC): Slowing down the CPU mainly to limit battery usage
Undervolting(UV): Basically keeping the clock speed same (or overclocking it) & reduce the voltage at each cpu cycle.
xRecovery: A recovery program based on the ClockworkMod Recovery sources used to apply updates, ROMs, or create a back up or restore a backup file
Wipe - to clean your device memory,recommended before flashing
File Types:
.dex: Compiled Android application code file. Android programs are compiled into .dex (Dalvik Executable) files, which are in turn zipped into a single .apk file on the device. .dex files can be created by automatically translating compiled applications written in the Java programming language.
.sbf: Summation Briefcase File
.apk or APK's: An .apk file extension denotes an Android Package (APK) file, an .apk file can be opened & inspected using common archive tools. Each Android application is compiled and packaged in a single file that includes all of the application's code (.dex files), resources, assets, and manifest file. The application package file can have any name but must use the .apk extension. For example: myExampleAppname.apk. For convenience, an application package file is often referred to as an ".apk".
.tar: Similar to a zip file(derived from tape archive), a tar file archives multiple files into one file
.tgz: TGZ files (gnu-zipped .tar file) are commonly used as install packages for Slackware Linux.
######
Will add latter some MOTOROLA MOTO G especific terms here
######
If you doubt is not about general android,but about Moto G,
--Check this FAQ made by @matmutant
Frequently Asked Questions -Motorola Moto G
--Also check this Resource Guide made by @Perseus71
Welcome to your Motorola Moto G
#####
Help improving this topic,quote me and give your suggestion
thanks for a still unknown ADM for sticking this thread
if i helped you with this post,just hit the thanks button,

This thread looks nice and useful, but make sure not to duplicate things from my FAQ or @Perseus71 guide that would be useless and confusing

@matmutant
Yes sir, I'm taking this care and wanna make this thread useful
if you know any thread that i should include in this topic or have any tip,just let me know

My Thread has a list of terms similarly in the first post. But this list seems more specific to Moto G.
Either way there seems to be some terms that are missing here but are present in mine.
Would you be kind enough to merge the differences so I will link to yours and get rid of mine ?

@Perseus71 Just realized I missed some terms, thanks for noticing, will merge them and also include new terms such as "ART" "KK "JB" "google now"

That would be a nice idea, and then rename this thread to something like "Android related terms and abbreviations" because it's neither a FAQ, nor a Guide

72off said:
@Perseus71 Just realized I missed some terms, thanks for noticing, will merge them and also include new terms such as "ART" "KK "JB" "google now"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
matmutant said:
That would be a nice idea, and then rename this thread to something like "Android related terms and abbreviations" because it's neither a FAQ, nor a Guide
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 all round.
@72off please let me know when you are done.

@Perseus71 @matmutant
Updates on 15/01 = new terms added
Binary - (sometimes called bin's) a group of executable files.
CDMA/GSM - A type of network communication between phones and carriers. GSM phones normally are included with SIM Cards that authorize them onto the network. CDMA have this authorization built in and do not need a sim card.
Execute - To "run" or "start" a binary
FOTA - "Firmware over the air" this normally refers to ROM's but can refer to radio firmware (see OTA)
Governor - A system embedded into the kernel to automatically change the current working CPU frequency depending on the workload. It would only go up to what it is overclocked (or underclocked) to, this is called the maximum frequency. It would not drop bellow the (just as easily configurable) minimum frequency.
JDK - "Java Development Kit" an SDK for the java platform. It is needed to run the Android SDK.
JRE - "Java Runtime Environment" a collection of binarys and files to allow java software to execute.
KANG - The process of creating a code based of someone else's code.
Library's/Libs - a set of instructions for applications to use to function. A functioning camera lib would allow the camera to be used.
Open-Source - (not to be confused with free) A piece of software that is free to edit, use, distribute and share with no charge.
RAM - Could be one of three meanings: 1. Memory for the CPU to process processes. 2. Random Access Memory, a place where information can be used, executed from, modified, or deleted
Recovery - Its a dedicated Android partition, that has Recovery console installed. This is invisible during normal operation of the android device.
Wipe - to clean your device memory,recommended before flashing
Jelly Bean - JB - Android from 4.1 to 4.3
Kit Kat - KK - Android 4.4 the newest android available (supported by Moto G)
ART - successor of Dalvik, a virtual machine (VM) that’s part of the Android OS. ART is faster than Dalvik and saves more energy
Right now 18/01 ordering by alphabetic order [completed]

Reference Links
It might be nice to add in some reference links for many of the terms to the official android pages.
ART - http://source.android.com/devices/tech/dalvik/art.html
.DEX - http://source.android.com/devices/tech/dalvik/dex-format.html
Dalvaik - http://source.android.com/devices/tech/dalvik/index.html
ADB - http://developer.android.com/tools/help/adb.html
Logcat - http://developer.android.com/tools/help/logcat.html
Other suggestions
At the end of the Dalvaik section you might add a sentence that says "see ART".
Maybe a mention about XPosed framework since it is very prevalent now.
In the definition of ROM it might be nice to explain a ROM image.
This is something I cannot find: What exactly does AOSPA(+) mean? Alternative?
Kernel is alphabetically in the wrong position in the list.
Explanation for the term MOD / Modification.
Add cool Android KitKat and Jelly Bean history link http://www.android.com/kitkat/
:good: Thanks for the nice list.

OTG missing?

AS this thread is always under development,i'm glad for the suggestions to make this a better thread
DigitalSnow said:
It might be nice to add in some reference links for many of the terms to the official android pages.
ART - http://source.android.com/devices/tech/dalvik/art.html
.DEX - http://source.android.com/devices/tech/dalvik/dex-format.html
Dalvaik - http://source.android.com/devices/tech/dalvik/index.html
ADB - http://developer.android.com/tools/help/adb.html
Logcat - http://developer.android.com/tools/help/logcat.html
[ ^ Perfect]
Other suggestions
At the end of the Dalvaik section you might add a sentence that says "see ART" [good idea]
Maybe a mention about XPosed framewor http://cdn3.xda-developers.com/images/editor/color.gifk since it is very prevalent now. [will be done]
In the definition of ROM it might be nice toexplain a ROM image [ok]
This is something I cannot find: What exactly does AOSPA(+) mean? Alternative? [ I thinck so since it's mostly related do paranoid android rom]
Kernel is alphabetically in the wrong position in the list.[Yeah,kernel is drunk,gonna slap him on the face and move to his place]
Explanation for the term MOD / Modification.
Add cool Android KitKat and Jelly Bean history link http://www.android.com/kitkat/ [wrong link]
:good: Thanks for the nice list.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@Fedroid
OTG missing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how could i forget? will be added. thanks

Nice info.I will add it into my bookmark. :good:

Great post thank you.
I suggest, the add of GPE definition : "Google Play Edition". Especially in the case of Moto G
Was not so obvious to me until I google it.

Another term that might be good to add is AWS since it is a unique factor between Moto G models.
AWS: Advanced Wireless Services in terms of the Moto G is the 3G UHF Frequency of 1700 MHz - 2100 MHz "T-Mobile"

Database Info

welcome