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Namespaced Packages
Namespaced packages, in the context of Linux or any Unix-like system, often refer to a way of organizing related packages under a common “namespace” to avoid conflicts and to clarify their purpose or affiliation. The concept of namespaces comes from programming, where a namespace is a container that holds a set of identifiers, functions, or types, and allows for the disambiguation of homonym identifiers residing in different namespaces.
In the context of Linux packages, namespaces are generally seen in package names themselves. For example, in Python-related packages in Debian or Ubuntu systems, you’ll often see package names like python3-<package_name>, python3.6-<package_name>, etc. Here, python3 or python3.6 could be seen as a namespace, indicating that the package relates to Python 3 or Python 3.6 specifically.
Similarly, in Red Hat or CentOS systems, you might see packages that start with rh-python36-<package_name> or rh-nodejs10-<package_name>. In this case, rh-python36 and rh-nodejs10 are namespaces that indicate specific versions of Python and Node.js, respectively.
This kind of namespacing allows for better organization and management of packages, especially when dealing with different versions of languages or tools.
