Add docs on how to distribute standalone packages (and install them with no internet connection)

[hltbra]

I've seen a lot of people asking how to distribute packages and install them with no internet connection (both on #pip@freenode and StackOverflow), it is a recurring question and there are lots of answers to this problem.

I just answered a similar question on StackOverflow and I mentioned bundles and a --no-install + --download-dir trick.

I think we should have an official and easy to find documentation on this topic.

(Maybe related to #236 and #111)

[jcrubino]

I agree.
There needs to be explicit support with nice syntatic sugar to install from a local cache or even set the search path to initially check local cache then do a pypi + hook your own (github, bitbucket etc) search.

each version will get a subfolder of the main package folder in the local cache.

Setting up Virtual env after Virtual env is making this functionality necessary

Does this warrant a new issue being filed?

[qwcode]

btw, the pip docs rewrite I'm working on has a cookbook, which includes a section for this.

regarding a "local package cache", I have a gist for this idea I wrote up awhile back, but other priorities keep getting in the way of trying this. https://gist.github.com/3828762

[hltbra]

@jcrubino, even with what you want implemented you would still need to compile packages that have C parts - like lxml. Every time I create a virtualenv and need to install lxml I whine...

[jcrubino]

@hitbra lol.

Regardless pip having a local cache search path first would be ideal standard option (no flag) for many people.

[qwcode]

looks like this topic is a different angle than the new "Fast & Local Installs" cookbook entry:
http://www.pip-installer.org/en/latest/cookbook.html#fast-local-installs

leaving this open to add another cookbook topic specifically with the title of "Distributing standalone packages" or something similar.

[dholth]

@htlbra try wheel ( https://github.com/pypa/pip/tree/wheel ), now PEP 427. On my machine lxml installs from a wheel in 0.819 seconds; lxml specifically was a big motivator for the project.

[dstufft]

I'm going to close this, I think the existing "Fast & Local Installs" cookbook entry covers this just fine.