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https://github.com/rogual/po

Po — a Windows package manager
https://github.com/rogual/po

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Po — a Windows package manager

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# Po, a Windows package manager



Po is a command-line-oriented package manager for Windows. While it aims to

include a useful repository of open-source libraries and development tools, it

is currently most useful for managing your own projects.



Po is in early development. Most notably, it does not yet manage dependencies.



## Features



* Keeps environment variables like PATH and INCLUDE in sync with installed

  packages. Does not modify your system-wide environment variables.



* Designed from the ground up to support several versions or build

  configurations per project, and to let you choose which are active.



* Downloads and installs supported third-party packages.



* Define your own local packages to be managed alongside third-party ones.



* Supports source and binary packages.



* Can detect and manage pre-installed software that wasn't installed via Po.



## Installation



First, install [Python 2.7][python]. Once that is installed, open a command

window and run this command:



    C:\Python27\python -c "exec __import__('urllib2').urlopen('http://raw.github.com/robin-allen/po/master/Scripts/installer.py').read()"



If you didn't install Python to the default location you'll need to change

the ```C:\Python27\python``` part.



[python]: http://python.org/download/



The installer will ask you for two paths. I recommend you just press Enter

to use the default for both. The paths are:



* **Packages path**: This is where Po will install itself, and any packages you

  install via Po.



* **Site path**: This is where Po will look for your own custom packages.



Once the installer has finished running, it will give you the path of your

Po initialization file. You need to run this file in any command window you

intend to use Po in, so you might want to change your command prompt settings

to have it always run when you open a new window.



## Usage



Po keeps track of its packages in its own private environment. To use your

packages, you need to enter this environment by typing:



    po enter



Your command prompt will change to show you're in the environment. To leave

the environment, use the standard Windows command



    exit



You can get a full list of commands by doing ```po help``` and help on any

command with ```po help ```.



## Standard Packages



Po defines a list of so-called "Standard Packages" which it knows how to

download and install for you. You can install one of these packages with the

command



    po install 



There is currently no way to view or search the list of standard packages, and

the list is very short and fairly buggy.



To see what standard packages are available, look in the Recipes subfolder

inside Po's "Package Manager" folder.



## System Packages



Po defines a list of "System Packages" corresponding to software which it can

detect on your system. Po cannot install this software itself, but it can

add the relevant paths to your environment for you.



System packages are useful for managing multiple versions of tools like

Python and Microsoft Visual Studio; you can select which version you want

to be loaded into the command-line environment with ```po select``` and Po

will do the rest.



To see what system packages are available, look in the Recipes subfolder

inside Po's "Package Manager" folder.



## Site Packages



Site packages are defined by you and placed in your Site folder. You write

a ```package.py``` file and place it inside your package's folder to tell Po

how to set up the enviroment for that package. Site packages can be selected

and deselected like other packages, and will contribute to the enviroment, but

they cannot be automatically installed or uninstalled.



Po does not try to detect when you make changes to a site package; when you

do, you need to reload the environment with



    po load



## The Inventory



To see a list of all installed packages, run



    po inv



Each package is shown with its package ID and its human-readable name. Packages

which are selected are shown in a brighter font, and deselected packages are

shown in a darker font. Only selected packages contribute to the environment.



You can select or deselect a package by giving its ID to the ```po select```

and ```po deselect``` commands. When several packages have the same ID, as in

the case of multiple installed versions, you can specify which package you

mean by using package attributes, for example:



    po select msvs version=11.0



This would select Visual Studio 11.0 and deselect other versions, so that if

you ran a VS tool like ```cl.exe```, you'd get the VS 11.0 version.