Glossary

See also: What is a Datadot for a more detailed explanation of these topics with examples and diagrams.

Mesh

A set of dotmesh clusters, spanning different data centers, laptops etc, with a hub – another dotmesh cluster – at the center. Also the people and workflows around it.

Cluster

A dotmesh cluster, one or more machines hosting a set of dots.

Datadot or “dot”

A way to organise, capture and share a collection of states that relate to an application (possibly including multiple data stores, and multi-instance data stores). Like a git repo, it’s a branchable, committable thing. But unlike a git repo, it supports running real databases on top of it and can process large amounts of data efficiently.

Branch

A writable filesystem that can be based on another branch’s commit (or is the initially empty “master” branch). Branches also have zero or more commits. The analogy is to git branches.

Commit

A point in time snapshot of a branch with a given hash/identifier.

Subdot

“Partitions” of a dot which can be mounted into different containers and which can be committed and branched together.

Volume

The manifestation of a branch’s writeable filesystem when it is e.g. mounted into a container.

Relationship diagram