As one prepares to install code into its final execution location, one has to determine in what file format the application should be shipped.

Hopefully people will add to the following discussion, spin off new pages,
etc.

Some of the most popular alternatives in the Tcl arena are:

Formats that need to be extracted by the user :

   * '''tar''' file format
   * '''zip''' archive file format (as implemented by winzip, unix's zip/unzip, etc.)
   * rpm file format (http://www.rpm.org/)
   * openpkg style (a varient of rpm) (see http://www.openpkg.org/)

Formats that need only to be placed by the user in the appropriate directory :

   * [starkit] file format
   * [starpack] file format
   * single file (if you are so lucky...)
   * one of the ''compressed but still executable' formats for a single file, such as provided by windows zip command, upx, etc.
   
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''[escargo] 1 Jul 2003'' - Any idea of ''which'' '''zip''' format(s) are of interest here?
For example, if you are on a system with GNU tar, you can untar and unzip at the same time
(tar xvzf ....). On systems without GNU tar, you might need a separate unzip program and
tar (or untar).  ''anonymous - '' The process used by gnu tar is more typically called '''gzip''' (in honor of the program used...).  gzip isn't really a deployment file format as it is a compression.

[AM] The well-known zip-format is directly supported by Tcl, which makes it feasible to use it on a number of well-known platforms.
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[Category Deployment]