Distro is an add-on unpacker for Orbiter. Extract it in your root orbiter directory. It works by reading .distro files. The distro files are simple text files with an easy user friendly format. .distro files are just JSON files.

example .distro file:
[
{
   "archive": "Orbiter2016.zip",
   "download_link": "https://www.orbiter-forum.com/resources/orbiter-2016-core-zip-edition.5425/"
}
]

When distro loads this file, it will check the distro_addons folder for Orbiter2016.zip. If the file exists, distro will show its status as "Present". If the file is missing, distro will show that it's "Missing". You can double click the archive entry in distro to open the download link of the archive in your default browser. You must save the file in distro_addons folder and click refresh to continue. Once all the Missing archives are downloaded, the Load Distro button will change to Install Distro. Click the Install Distro button to start installation.

You can have multiple entries per file. For example, this file will prompt user to download and install 2 zip archives in their Orbiter folder:

[
{
   "archive": "Orbiter2016.zip",
   "download_link": "https://www.orbiter-forum.com/resources/orbiter-2016-core-zip-edition.5425/"
},
{
   "archive": "foobar.zip",
   "download_link": "https://example.com/foobar"
}
]

All entries with "archive" must also provide an appropriate "download_link" as well for the user to download the file from.

In addition tot "archive" and "download_link", the following options are also supported:

"add_line":
{
        "add_line": "VCMfdSize = 1024",
        "file": "Orbiter_NG.cfg"
}

"remove_line":
{
        "remove_line": "VCMfdSize = 1024",
        "file": "Orbiter_NG.cfg"
}

"start_token", "end_token", "new_lines":
{
        "start_token": "BEGIN_SURFTILES",
        "end_token": "END_SURFTILES",
        "new_lines": [
           "new line 1",
           "new line 2"
        ],
        "file": "base.cfg"
}

"enable_plugin":
{
     "enable_plugin": "ScnEditor"
}

"src_dir" - install from an extracted sub-directory of the archive:
{
   "archive": "Orbiter2016.zip",
   "download_link": "https://www.orbiter-forum.com/resources/orbiter-2016-core-zip-edition.5425/",
   "src_dir": "Config"
}

"script_file" - execute script file
{
   "script_file": "post-install-foobar.bat"
}

"command" - execute arbitrary command
{
   "command": ".\\distro_addons\\foo.exe
}