Package Terminology:

22.8.1 Package Flavors

There are two main flavors of packages.

• Regular Packages A regular package is one in which multiple files are involved and one may not in general safely remove any of them, unless removing the entire package.
• Single-File Packages A single-file package is an aggregate collection of thematically related but otherwise independent lisp files. These files are bundled together for download convenience and individual files may be deleted at will without any loss of functionality. However, we would recommend that you follow this rule of thumb: "When in doubt, don’t delete".

22.8.2 Package Distributions

XEmacs Lisp packages are distributed in two ways, depending on the intended use. Binary Packages are for installers and end-users that can be installed directly into an XEmacs package directory. Source Packages are for developers and include all files necessary for rebuilding bytecompiled lisp and creating tarballs for distribution.

22.8.3 Binary Packages

Binary packages may be installed directly into an XEmacs package hierarchy.

22.8.4 Source Packages

Source packages contain all of the Package author’s (where appropriate in regular packages) source code plus all of the files necessary to build distribution tarballs (Unix Tar format files, gzipped for space savings).

Currently, source packages are only available via CVS. See http://cvs.xemacs.org/ for details.