# 11.25 `distutils.cmd` -- Abstract base class for Distutils commands

This module supplies the abstract base class `Command`.

class `Command`( | dist)

  Abstract base class for defining command classes, the ``worker bees'' of the Distutils. A useful analogy for command classes is to think of them as subroutines with local variables called options. The options are declared in `initialize_options()` and defined (given their final values) in `finalize_options()`, both of which must be defined by every command class. The distinction between the two is necessary because option values might come from the outside world (command line, config file, ...), and any options dependent on other options must be computed after these outside influences have been processed -- hence `finalize_options()`. The body of the subroutine, where it does all its work based on the values of its options, is the `run()` method, which must also be implemented by every command class.

  The class constructor takes a single argument dist, a `Distribution` instance.