[Distutils] zc.buildout

[Miles]

Hi,

We have some a zc.buildout-based deployment system, and we're looking at 
how we can make the process slightly easier for moving between 
development, testing and production environments.

I was wondering if others have a pattern for setting up a buildout in 
this way?  I am imagining that this is better done by running the 
different steps, but putting the outputs in different locations (e.g. 
for testing, put apache configurations in some directory in the test 
tree), rather than trying to selectively run steps (e.g. for testing, i 
do not want apache configurations set up).  Is there a useful 
buildout.cfg pattern that covers this?

Also, one other use-case that we've got is to be able to group parts 
together into sets.  So, for example, I'd lie to be able to do something 
like:

[buildout]
parts = awstats

[awstats]
parts = awstats-download apacheconf-install crontab-install

which would tell buildout to run the three parts listed, rather than 
remembering all 3 specific parts in the parts list.  The advantage being 
to ensure the bits are always run together.

Has anyone done anything like this at all?

Thanks,

Miles