A

active panel

The panel in which the user is currently working or directing input. An active panel is distinguished by the color of its directory line. Compare inactive panel.

archive file (or just archive)

An archive file contains packed files and directories. Archives are used to save disk space (files in an archive are usually compressed), make backups, and ease transfer of files and directories. Common examples are ZIP, RAR, and 7-ZIP archivers and their archive files (with .zip, .rar, and .7z file extensions). See also archiver, packer, and unpacker.

archiver

An archiver is a tool for working with archive files. It includes packing, unpacking, listing, deleting from archive, etc. See also packer, unpacker, and archive file.

ASCII file

An ASCII file, also called a text file, a text-only file, or an ASCII text file, refers to a file in the universally recognized text format called ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange). An ASCII file contains characters, spaces, punctuation, carriage returns, and sometimes tabs and an end-of-file marker, but it contains no formatting information. This generic format is useful for transferring files between programs that could not otherwise understand each other's documents. See also text file.

attributes

Information that indicates whether a file is a read-only, hidden, system, compressed, or encrypted file, and whether the file has changed since a backup copy of it was made.

auditing

Tracking activities of users by recording selected types of events in the security log of a server or a workstation.