The application packaging (software deliverables) is a vague concept to me. I worked in web application before so all I know how to prepare the deliverables ie WAR and then put them into the servlet container and rest of this being taken care of. But when considering other java or c++-based application (.exe or .class) how to prepare the package? What should be considered for preparation of the package and deployment of the application? Like I understand there should be some entries made into the windows registry or some libraries to be put in /usr/bin directory and so on. And during the development phase the execution and testing is done in more informal manner like writing some shell script or so on. But the deployment scenario is a more formal thing. As I said I have only the idea of deploying web applications I am not much knowledgeable in the other areas. Are there any kind of conventions like there are conventions for documentations like javadoc or doxygen/man pages? Application packaging is not that sort of a thing that there are much discussion on books or online materials. This is very disappointing.