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<H1><A NAME="SECTION004000000000000000000"></A>
<A NAME="source-dist"></A>
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4. Creating a Source Distribution
</H1>
<P>
As shown in section <A href="simple-example.html#simple-example">1.2</A>, you use the
<code class="du-command">sdist</code> command to create a source distribution. In the
simplest case,
<P>
<div class="verbatim"><pre>
python setup.py sdist
</pre></div>
<P>
(assuming you haven't specified any <code class="du-command">sdist</code> options in the setup
script or config file), <code class="du-command">sdist</code> creates the archive of the
default format for the current platform. The default format is a gzip'ed
tar file (<span class="file">.tar.gz</span>) on <span class="Unix">Unix</span>, and ZIP file on Windows.
<P>
You can specify as many formats as you like using the
<b class="programopt">--formats</b> option, for example:
<P>
<div class="verbatim"><pre>
python setup.py sdist --formats=gztar,zip
</pre></div>
<P>
to create a gzipped tarball and a zip file. The available formats are:
<P>
<div class="center"><table class="realtable">
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="left" >Format</th>
<th class="left" >Description</th>
<th class="center">Notes</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td class="left" valign="baseline"><code>zip</code></td>
<td class="left" >zip file (<span class="file">.zip</span>)</td>
<td class="center">(1),(3)</td></tr>
<tr><td class="left" valign="baseline"><code>gztar</code></td>
<td class="left" >gzip'ed tar file (<span class="file">.tar.gz</span>)</td>
<td class="center">(2),(4)</td></tr>
<tr><td class="left" valign="baseline"><code>bztar</code></td>
<td class="left" >bzip2'ed tar file (<span class="file">.tar.bz2</span>)</td>
<td class="center">(4)</td></tr>
<tr><td class="left" valign="baseline"><code>ztar</code></td>
<td class="left" >compressed tar file (<span class="file">.tar.Z</span>)</td>
<td class="center">(4)</td></tr>
<tr><td class="left" valign="baseline"><code>tar</code></td>
<td class="left" >tar file (<span class="file">.tar</span>)</td>
<td class="center">(4)</td></tr></tbody>
</table></div>
<P>
Notes:
<DL>
<DT><STRONG>(1)</STRONG></DT>
<DD>default on Windows
</DD>
<DT><STRONG>(2)</STRONG></DT>
<DD>default on <span class="Unix">Unix</span>
</DD>
<DT><STRONG>(3)</STRONG></DT>
<DD>requires either external <b class="program">zip</b> utility or
<tt class="module">zipfile</tt> module (part of the standard Python library since
Python 1.6)
</DD>
<DT><STRONG>(4)</STRONG></DT>
<DD>requires external utilities: <b class="program">tar</b> and possibly one
of <b class="program">gzip</b>, <b class="program">bzip2</b>, or <b class="program">compress</b>
</DD>
</DL>
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<span class="release-info">Release 2.4.3, documentation updated on 29 March 2006.</span>
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