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Python Distutils-SIG: Anonymous CVS Access

If you want to help out with developing the Distutils suite, the first step is to get your hands on the latest source code. This is done by anonymous access to the CVS archive at SourceForge. Note that the CVS archive will contain bleeding-edge versions of the code; don't expect everything to work perfectly. You're doing this to help code and debug, right?

Getting the code

First, you must have CVS version 1.9 or later; you can download it from Cyclic Software. (Windows users might be interested in WinCvs, a GUI front-end to CVS.)

Next, log in to the CVS server 

cvs \
-d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/python \
login
There is no password.

Once logged in, you can check out the whole source tree: 

cvs -z3 \
-d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/python \
checkout distutils
This will create (roughly) the following tree: 
distutils --+ distutils --+ command
            + doc --------+ dist
            |             + inst
            + examples ---+ sample1
            |             + ...
            |             + sampleN (currently N = 6)
            + test
The top distutils is the distribution root, ie. where setup.py, README.txt, etc. live; in a real release, it would be called (eg.) Distutils-0.9. The inner distutils directory is the actual Distutils package, ie. this is where the code is. The other directories should be self-explanatory.

Following updates

If you want to stay on top of the latest developments in the source code, you can subscribe to the python-checkins mailing list. This list is notified every time somebody checks in a change to the distutils CVS archive.

Note that the distutils-checkins mailing list is no longer used.

You might want to periodically update your copy of the source tree to match what's been checked in since you last checked it out. The CVS update command lets you do this (run it from within the distutils directory, or a subdirectory of it if you only want to do a partial update): 

    cvs -z3 update -d -P

Submitting changes

Because you've only been granted anonymous access to the tree, you won't be able to commit any changes. Major changes should be discussed on the Distutils-SIG mailing list; you can submit patches via SourceForge. (See the Python developer FAQ for instructions on how to submit patches. (Really major changes should probably be discussed on the list before you start them!)