Capstone Glossary

Page Maps

graph LR
  family["Reproducible Research"]
  program["Deep Dive Make"]
  section["Capstone"]
  page["Capstone Glossary"]
  capstone["Capstone evidence"]

  family --> program --> section --> page
  page -.applies in.-> capstone

flowchart LR
  orient["Orient on the page map"] --> read["Read the main claim and examples"]
  read --> inspect["Inspect the related code, proof, or capstone surface"]
  inspect --> verify["Run or review the verification path"]
  verify --> apply["Apply the idea back to the module and capstone"]

Use this page when the Deep Dive Make capstone routes start sounding interchangeable. The goal is to keep the build reviewable under pressure instead of relying on oral history or terminal folklore.

Contracts and ownership

Term	Meaning in this capstone	Do not confuse it with
public target	a supported Make target whose meaning callers may rely on	every target that happens to be invocable
target contract	the target's inputs, outputs, side effects, evidence, and failure meaning	the recipe text alone
owning boundary	the file or component responsible for one decision	every file that participates in the behavior
policy	authored rules that define allowed membership, inputs, or acceptance	an observation of what one run happened to contain
graph membership	the sources, generated inputs, and outputs represented to Make	package membership in a release candidate
writer	the one rule or process authorized to publish an output path	any process that reads or verifies that output
handoff contract	immutable input identity, receiver responsibility, retry ownership, and receipt requirements across tools	a shell command that launches the receiver

Build truth

Term	Meaning in this capstone	Diagnostic question
graph truth	declared prerequisites and writers represent the behavior needed for correct scheduling and invalidation	which input or writer is invisible to Make?
modeled input	file or content-bearing state that can make an output stale	would changing it cause the intended rebuild?
hidden input	behavior-affecting state not yet represented in the graph	can the output change while Make sees no prerequisite change?
convergence	an unchanged rerun schedules no unintended production work and leaves the accepted state stable	what work appears on the second invocation?
bounded rebuild	a relevant change rebuilds required consumers without rebuilding unrelated outputs	is the rebuild set too small or too broad?
schedule equivalence	tested serial and parallel schedules produce equivalent accepted inventories	are outputs and evidence the same, not merely both successful?
parallel safety	concurrent execution preserves writer ownership, publication integrity, and declared ordering	which shared path or undeclared edge could race?
atomic publication	incomplete candidate output stays private until a complete result replaces the public path	can a reader observe partial bytes?

Proof and evidence

flowchart LR
  claim["Claim"]
  challenge["Challenge"]
  observation["Observation"]
  rule["Acceptance rule"]
  judgment["Bounded judgment"]

  claim --> challenge --> observation --> rule --> judgment

Term	Meaning in this capstone	What makes it useful
proof route	an executable challenge and evidence path for one or more claims	it can distinguish supported behavior from a plausible false result
positive check	valid behavior is expected to succeed	establishes the ordinary path
negative control	a named defect or dishonest record is expected to be rejected	shows that success is not automatic
metamorphic check	a controlled input change must cause a predicted behavior change	tests invalidation and rebuild scope
observation	recorded command, state, trace, or artifact from an execution	it is attributable to a context
finding	structured interpretation of observations for one case	it names mechanism, result, and referenced evidence
acceptance rule	the condition that converts observations into pass, rejection, or unresolved status	a reviewer can inspect and challenge it
evidence bundle	governed directory containing routes, summaries, findings, and referenced observations	another reviewer can follow it without terminal history
evidence identity	digest, context, or case identifier binding evidence to its subject	it prevents results from drifting between subjects
self-fulfilling evidence	a check that repairs, rebuilds, or derives expectations from the subject before judging it	nothing; redesign the check

Routes and review

Term	Meaning in this capstone
walkthrough	bounded first contact that connects a public target, owning surface, and proof route
inspection route	contract-oriented evidence such as help, portability, and discovery records
focused audit	one named family of claims, specimens, findings, and rejection rules
composed proof	a target that produces several governed bundles without turning them into one universal claim
repro	a deliberately broken miniature Makefile that isolates one failure mechanism
failure packet	specimen, execution context, raw observation, structured finding, and preserved workspace needed for diagnosis
stewardship review	a supported judgment about whether a caller may rely on, extend, or hand off a bounded behavior
proposed reliance	the exact behavior a caller wants to trust; the subject of a review
evidence grade	observed, repeatable, challenged, or governed strength assigned before the conclusion
bounded judgment	supported, supported with a limit, not supported, or not reviewed for one proposed reliance

Release boundaries

Term	Meaning in this capstone	Boundary
source bundle	tracked source distribution after contamination checks	not the executable release candidate
candidate	exact archive bytes proposed for local acceptance	not accepted merely because production succeeded
candidate identity	digest naming the exact bytes under review	not package correctness
package policy	authored member paths and modes allowed in the candidate	not an observed archive listing
consumer-only verification	verification of existing candidate bytes without rebuilding or replacing them	not a second production route
extraction eligibility	archive members are safe to unpack under a controlled root	not proof of installed-tree correctness
contained install	mapped files remain beneath a controlled install root	not host installation
install convergence	repeated application yields the same governed installed tree	not merely two zero exit statuses
local acceptance	candidate, package, extraction, and contained-install evidence agree on one identity	not remote publication
release residue	build leftovers or local evidence that must not masquerade as publishable source	governed release evidence under artifacts/
publication receipt	remote receiver evidence bound to candidate identity	intentionally outside the current capstone

Capability language

Term	Meaning
tool identity	observed name and version, useful for diagnosis
advertised capability	a feature token or probe result stating that one behavior is available
required capability	an advertised behavior the core build must have before parsing can continue
support policy	the environments maintainers commit to test and help users run
unprobed capability	optional behavior for which the capstone intentionally makes no support claim

GNU Make's version is identity. $(.FEATURES) is capability evidence for advertised features such as grouped-target. Neither says which operating systems the maintainers support.

Confusable pairs

Pair	Distinction
production / verification	production may create candidate bytes; verification must judge the existing subject without replacing it
success / acceptance	success is process status; acceptance applies a reviewable rule to observations
ordering / invalidation	order-only edges sequence work; ordinary prerequisite edges can also make targets stale
helper / owner	a helper performs bounded mechanics; an owner decides policy or graph meaning
trace / proof	a trace explains selected activity; proof challenges a claim with an acceptance rule
digest / provenance	a digest names bytes; provenance describes selected production context
local acceptance / publication	local acceptance stops with governed evidence; publication changes remote state and needs a receipt
cleanup / recovery	cleanup removes state; recovery preserves evidence, repairs the boundary, and re-establishes trust

Vocabulary drill

Replace each vague sentence with a bounded one:

Vague	More reviewable
“The build is deterministic.”	“The tested clean serial and parallel schedules produced equivalent inventories under the recorded context.”
“The release passed.”	“Candidate, install, and composed local-acceptance records identify the same digest; remote publication was not attempted.”
“The test caught the bug.”	“The negative control reproduced the declared shared-writer signature and the audit rejected evidence when that signature was absent.”
“The script owns packaging.”	“Package policy owns allowed membership; the assembly script produces candidate bytes from that policy.”
“Make 4.4 is supported.”	“The running Make advertises the required feature tokens; support policy is recorded separately.”

You understand the vocabulary when you can name the subject, boundary, evidence, and limit without using “works,” “safe,” or “verified” as complete explanations.