In Linux, the term noarch (short for no architecture) is used in the context of software packaging, particularly with RPM (Red Hat Package Manager) and DEB (Debian) packages.
What does noarch mean?
A noarch package is a software package that is architecture-independent. This means:
- It does not contain compiled binaries specific to a CPU architecture (like x86_64, arm64, etc.).
- It typically includes scripts, text files, fonts, documentation, or interpreted code (like Python, Perl, or Java) that can run on any architecture as long as the necessary interpreter or environment is available.
Why use noarch?
Using noarch has several benefits:
- Portability: The same package can be installed on any system, regardless of its hardware architecture.
- Simplified packaging: Maintainers only need to build and distribute one version of the package.
- Reduced storage and bandwidth: Fewer architecture-specific builds mean less duplication.
Example
If you install a Python library packaged as an RPM and it only contains .py files (no compiled .so or .pyd files), it might be labeled as:
python3-mytool-1.0.0-1.noarch.rpm
This indicates that the package can be installed on any system with Python 3, regardless of whether it’s x86_64, ARM, or another architecture.