Sage .spkg files

Files with the extension ".spkg" are known as Sage packages. The directory SAGE_ROOT/spkg/standard contains the standard SPKG's. In a source install of Sage, this directory contains all the standard Sage spkg files (actually .tar or .tar.bz2 files), which are the source code that defines Sage. In a binary install, some of these may be small placeholder files to save space.

Sage packages are distributed as ".spkg" files, which are .tar.bz2 files (or tar files) but have the extension ".spkg" to discourage confusion. Although Sage packages are packed using tar and/or bzip2, please note that ".spkg" files contain control information (installation scripts and metadata) that are necessary for building and installing them. For source distributions, when you compile Sage the file SAGE_ROOT/makefile takes care of the unpacking, compilation, and installation of Sage packages for you. For more information on the structure of .spkg files, please refer to the Sage Developer's Guide in your local installation of Sage at

SAGE_ROOT/sage/doc/output/html/en/developer/index.html

If you cannot locate that file in your local installation of Sage, you might want to consider (re)building the standard Sage documentation using this command:

SAGE_ROOT/sage -docbuild all html

or refer to the online Sage developer's guide. Additional Sage packages can be found at the packages download page.