========================
The Zope Packaging Tools
========================

Overview
--------

`zpkg -- The Zope Packaging Tool <intro.html>`_
  What |zpkg|_ is all about.

`Packaging Tool Quick Start <quickstart.html>`_
  How to get started with |zpkg|_.

`Running the zpkg tool <zpkg.html>`_
  Essentially a man page for |zpkg|_.  This describes command line
  options and configuration of the tool.

`Metadata Descriptions for Resources <metadata.html>`_
  Descriptions of the metadata files read by |zpkg|_ to allow it to
  create distributions from components.

`Resource Locations <resources.html>`_
  Information about how locations for resources are specified for
  |zpkg|_, with an emphasis on URL schemes used to support revision
  control systems.

`Collection Distributions <collections.html>`_
  A description of how collection distributions are put together.

`API documentation <apiref/index.html>`_
  Documentation on the ``zpkgtools`` interface.  The interface to this
  package is entirely open to change at this point, but this might
  help to understand how to tool works.

`To-do list <TODO.html>`_
  List of things that still need to be handled, of course.


Related Links
-------------

`Zope 3 Packaging Proposal`__
  Discussion of the packaging requirements for Zope 3.
  Currently labelled as a pre-proposal.

`PEP 241: Distribution metadata`__
  This PEP describes a mechanism for adding metadata to Python
  packages.  It includes specifics of the field names, and their
  semantics and usage.

`PEP 262: A Database of Installed Python Packages`__
  This PEP describes a mechanism for adding metadata to Python
  packages.  It includes specifics of the field names, and their
  semantics and usage.

  Implementation of PEP 262 in distutils, along with a general way to
  identify dependencies, would allow import-less dependency checking
  as well as uninstallation.

`Andrew Kuchling's notes from the Distribution BoF at PyCon2003`__

`Dependency Support in Distutils`__
  Phillip Eby's ideas about what dependency support should look like
  (in the python.org Wiki).

`Distutils Wishlist from the Distutils-SIG`__
  Notes on changes to the distutils from the members of the
  Distutils-SIG.  This is most a list of suggestions of warts that
  should be fixed.


.. __: http://dev.zope.org/Zope3/Zope3PackagingProposal
.. __: http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0241.html
.. __: http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0262.html
.. __: http://www.amk.ca/diary/2003/03/28#2003-03-28-4
.. __: http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/moinmoin/DistutilsDependencies
.. __: http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/moinmoin/DistUtils20
.. include:: links.rst
