Bento, a pythonic packaging solution for python software

With bento, packages metadata are described in an easy to read bento.info file.

The syntax is indentation-based, as python.

Bento aims at supporting all python versions from 2.4 to 3.x
```
Name: foo
Version: 0.1
Description:
    Package description.

Library:
    Packages:
	foo, foo.core
```

Bento packages are currently installed using bentomaker, the command line interface to bento.

$ bentomaker configure
$ bentomaker build
$ bentomaker install
# Or more simply
$ bentomaker install

If your package uses distutils/setuptools/distribute, you can convert your setup.py to bento format using the convert command

# Run this in a project containing a setup.py
$ bentomaker convert

# You now have a bento.info file
$ bentomaker configure ...

You don't have to give up your favorite packaging tools to benefit from bento, thanks to bento's distutils compatibility layer. A simple 4-lines setup.py will make your bento package works with easy_install or pip:
```
import setuptools
from bento.distutils.monkey_patch import monkey_patch
monkey_patch()
setuptools.setup()
```
```
$ easy_install your-bento-package
$ pip install your-bento-package
```

To avoid addtional dependencies to your package, bento may be distributed as a single file.

# This will create a self-contained bentomaker
# file that you can include in your project
$ python tools/createdist.py
Created self-contained script 'bentomaker' in ...

# You can now simply add the generated
# bentomaker file into your source distribution
$ cp bentomaker $my_source_tree
$ cd $my_source_tree
$ ./bentomaker ...

Bentomaker also supports building source distributions, and preliminary support for windows installers, eggs and Mac OS X .mpkg.
```
$ bentomaker sdist
$ bentomaker build_wininst
$ bentomaker build_egg
$ bentomaker build_mpkg
```

One simple way to include data files (installed) and extra distribution files (not installed)

Datafiles: pdf-doc
    TargetDir: /usr/local/share/doc/foo
    Files: main.pdf

ExtraSourceFiles:
    doc/source/index.rst

Bento aims at making packagers' life easier. Paths may be customized at configuration stage, and those paths may be used inside the bento.info file.
```
Datafiles: pdf-doc
    TargetDir: $pdfdoc
    Files: main.pdf
```
```
$ bentomaker configure --pdfdoc=/usr/pdfdoc
```
Retrieving package data location at runtime indenpendently of their install path is as simple as importing a variable
```
from yourpackage.__bento_config import PDFDOC 
```
Developing complex packages with C code is now more pleasant thanks to automatic dependency tracking.

By default, bentomaker builds C extensions using yaku, which automatically rebuild necessary files whenver build options of file content change.

It builds C extensions in parallel, too
```
$ bentomaker build
PYCC	foo.o
PYCC	bar.o
PYLINK	foo.so
$ edit foo.c
$ bentomaker build
PYCC	foo.o # Only foo is rebuilt
PYLINK	foo.so
```
Bento is designed from the ground up to be extensible, and cleanly separate configuration, build, installation and packaging.

You want to use waf or scons to build C extensions? You want to add support for building debian packages? Bento aims at making those tasks not only possible but easy and robust.
Take me to Bento documentation