'''[[http://pypi.python.org/pypi/zc.buildout|Buildout]]''' is a "system for managing development buildouts".

While often identified as a [[Zope]] project, and indeed licensed under the [[ZPL]] by Zope creator [[Jim Fulton]], '''buildout''' is useful for configurations beyond Zope, and even, in rare cases, a few that have nothing to do with [[Python]].  The home page includes extensive documentation, examples, and more.

At one level, buildout (still referred to as "zc.buildout" on occasion) manages [[egg]]s.

[explain relation to easy_install and eggs; '''workingenv.py''' and '''virtualenv.py'''; explain usage]

Other treatments of '''buildout''' include:

 * [[Martin Aspelli]]'s book on [[Plone]] 3, which includes a good reference on '''buildout''';
 * the Zope 3 Wiki includes a [[http://wiki.zope.org/zope3/UsingBuildout|useful page]] on the subject;
 * Jim wrote a [[http://grok.zope.org/minitutorials/buildout.html|tutorial]];
 * [[/pycon2008 tutorial|Tutorial class for PyCon 2008]]

A proposal is being floated to create a more professional site for buildout.  At a first step, let's [[/newsite notes|collect notes]] on what such a site would contain.