I've just put out a beta of a major new version of datapkg (see changelog below):

There's a quick getting started section below (also see docs).

About the release

This is a substantial release with a lot of new features. As this is a client app which will run on a variety of platforms its been released as a beta first so there's a chance to catch any of the cross-platform compatibility bugs that inevitably show up. (My favourite from last time was a variation between python 2.5 and 2.6 in the way urlparse functioned for non-standard schemes …)

I'd therefore really welcome any feedback especially regarding bugs and from people using platforms I don't usually – such as windows!

Get started fast

1. Install: (requires python and easy_install)

$ easy_install datapkg

Or, if you don't like easy_install

$ pip install datapkg or even the raw source!

2. [optional] Take a look at the manual

$ datapkg man

3. Search for something

$ datapkg search ckan:// gold gold-prices – Gold Prices in London 1950-2008 (Monthly)

4. Get some data

This will result in a csv file at /tmp/gold-prices/data

$ datapkg download ckan://gold-prices /tmp

Find out more » – including how to create, register and distribute your own 'data packages.

Changelog

(MAJOR) Support for uploading datapkgs (upload.py)
(MAJOR) Much improved and extended documenation
(MAJOR) Make datapkg easily extendable
- Support for adding new Index types with plugins
- Support for adding new Commands with command plugins
- Support for adding new Distributions with distribution plugins
Improved package download support (also now pluggable)
New sqlite-based DB index (ticket:360)
Improved spec: support for db type index + better documentation
Better configuration management (especially internally)
Reduce dependencies by removing dependency on PasteScript and PasteDeploy
Various minor bugfixes and code improvements