@node Packages, Abbrevs, Running, Top
@comment  node-name,  next,  previous,  up

@section Introduction to XEmacs Packages
@cindex packages

The XEmacs 21 distribution comes only with a very basic set of
built-in modes and packages.  Most of the packages that were part of
the distribution of earlier versions of XEmacs are now separately
available.  The installer as well as the user can choose which
packages to install; the actual installation process is easy.
This gives an installer the ability to tailor an XEmacs installation for
local needs with safe removal of unnecessary code.

@subsection Package Flavors

There are two main flavors of packages.

@itemize @emph
@item Regular Packages
A regular package is one in which multiple files are involved and one
may not in general safely remove any of them.

@item Single-File Packages
A single-file package is an aggregate collection of thematically
related but otherwise independent lisp files.  These files are bundled 
together for download convenience and individual files may deleted at
will without any loss of functionality.
@end itemize

@subsection Package Distributions

XEmacs Lisp packages are distributed in two ways depending on the
intended use.  Binary Packages are for installers and end-users and may
be installed directly into an XEmacs package directory.  Source Packages
are for developers and include all files necessary for rebuilding
bytecompiled lisp and creating tarballs for distribution.

@subsection Binary Packages
Binary packages may be installed directly into an XEmacs package
hierarchy.

@subsection Source Packages

Source packages contain all of the Package author's (where appropriate
in regular packages) source code plus all of the files necessary to
build distribution tarballs (Unix Tar format files and gzipped for space
savings).

@subsection Prerequisites for building Source Packages

You must have GNU @code{cp}, GNU @code{install} (or a BSD compatible
@code{install} program) GNU @code{make} (3.75 or later preferred),
@code{makeinfo} (1.68 from @code{texinfo-3.11} or later required), GNU
@code{tar} and XEmacs 21.0.  The source packages will untar into a
correct directory structure.  At the top level you must have
@file{XEmacs.rules} and @file{package-compile.el}.  These files are
available from the XEmacs FTP site from the same place you obtained your
source package distributions.

@subsection What you can do with Source Packages

NB:  A global build operation doesn't exist yet as of 13 January 1998.

Source packages are most useful for creating XEmacs package tarballs
for installation into your own XEmacs installations or for
distributing to others.

Supported operations from Make are:

@table @code
@item clean
Remove all built files except @file{auto-autoloads.el} and @file{custom-load.el}.

@item distclean
Remove XEmacs backups as well as the files deleted by @code{make clean}.

@item all
Bytecompile all files, build and bytecompile byproduct files like
@file{auto-autoloads.el} and @file{custom-load.el}.  Create info version
of TeXinfo documentation if present.

@item srckit
Usually aliased to @code{make srckit-std}.  This does a @code{make
distclean} and creates a package source tarball in the staging
directory.  This is generally only of use for package maintainers.

@item binkit
May be aliased to @code{binkit-sourceonly}, @code{binkit-sourceinfo},
@code{binkit-sourcedata}, or
@code{binkit-sourcedatainfo}. @code{sourceonly} indicates there is
nothing to install in a data directory or info directory.
@code{sourceinfo} indicates that source and info files are to be
installed.  @code{sourcedata} indicates that source and etc (data) files
are to be installed.  @code{sourcedatainfo} indicates source, etc
(data), and info files are to be installed.  A few packages have needs
beyond the basic templates so this is not yet complete.

@item dist
Runs the rules @code{srckit} followed by @code{binkit}.  This is
primarily of use by XEmacs maintainers producing files for distribution.

@end table