MAKEDIST(1)						      General Commands Manual						       MAKEDIST(1)

NAME

       makedist - a distribution kit maker

SYNOPSIS

       makedist [ -dhqvV ] [ -c dir ] [ -s size ] [-f manifest ]

DESCRIPTION

       Makedist is a rather simpleminded shar program that knows how to pack files into multiple kits of approximately 50000 bytes each.  The shar
       scripts produced assume very little about the target machine; there is correspondingly little error checking done compared  to  other  shar
       programs.  Alternatively,  with	the -c option, you can create a directory containing the whole source tree, and then pack it up using your
       own shell archiver.

       If you are using the copyright expansion feature (as determined by packinit), then you have to pack your distribution using this program to
       ensure the copyright is correctly set.

       In order to run makedist you have to do two things:

       1)  Create  a  .package	file  in  the package's top-level directory by running packinit.  This program will ask you about your package and
	   remember what you tell it so that all the dist programs can be smart.

       2)  Create a MANIFEST.new file in your top-level directory that lists all the files in your package.  The  filename  should  be	the  first
	   field on each line.	After some whitespace you can add a comment describing your file (briefly).

       After  running  makedist,  you  will  have  a  set  of kits in your top-level directory.  If your package name is "foo", they will be named
       foo.kit1, foo.kit2, etc.  The file created PACKLIST file is automatically added to the distribution and tells which files come  with  which
       kits.   If  you used the -c option, you will end-up with a single directory instead, containing the whole distribution, ready to be sent to
       the end-user.

       If a file is too large to be packed as-is in one archive, it will be automatically split in smaller parts. Only the first 11 characters	of
       the  file will be kept though, and makedist will abort if two distinct files are to be split and have the same 11 first characters in their
       names. The split files will automatically be reconstructed at the end of the archive extraction by runnning  a  script  generated  in  PAC-
       KNOTES.

       You may then mail your kits via kitsend or post them with kitpost.

OPTIONS

       The following options are handled by makedist:

       -c dir	 Tell  makedist that the distribution should be copied (mirrored) in the specified directory, instead of producing shell archives.
		 Compatible with the -q option.

       -d	 Turn on debug mode. Probably not useful.

       -f file	 Use file as manifest. By default, MANIFEST.new is used.

       -h	 Print help message and exit.

       -q	 Quick production of the kits: the checked-out version of the files is used, instead of using the RCS file  to	actually  get  the
		 latest  checked-in version.  This will save some considerable time, but you have to be sure the checked-out version is up-to-date
		 or you might end up with an inconsistent package.

       -s size	 Set maximum kit size to size bytes.

       -v	 Verbose mode: trace kit building process or tree mirroring.

       -V	 Print version number and exit.

AUTHORS

       Larry Wall <lwall@netlabs.com> (version 2.0)
       Raphael Manfredi <ram@hptnos02.grenoble.hp.com>

FILES

       Creates ./$package.kit* unless -c option is used.
       PACKLIST and PACKNOTES are also temporarily created.

SEE ALSO

       kitsend(1), kitpost(1), metaconfig(1), patcol(1)

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