Types of Distributions

A distribution is a collection of software content wrapped up for consumption by clients of the software. You can distribute applications and libraries to clients by creating a distribution.

You can build a distribution into one of the following output types.

• Package—Contents of the distribution build into an NI Package Manager package file (.nipkg). Clients of the software can install the distribution directly from Package Manager. You can also add the distribution to a feed so that clients of the software can subscribe to the feed and install the distribution from Package Manager via network access.
• Package Installer—Contents of the distribution build into an installer file (.exe). By default, the package installer includes all the package dependencies in the output so that clients of the software can install the distribution without network access.

  You can also build the package installer with only the feeds of all the dependencies. When clients of the software install the distribution, the package installer installs exact hierarchy and versions of all the dependencies. This is recommended only for installing on a clean machine because it might upgrade or downgrade installed packages on the target machine.

Use a Distribution document (.lvdist) to create and build distributions. The Distribution document contains metadata of your distribution, such as type of distribution, version information, company name, and product name.