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#### 11.1.1 Introduction to Packages

A package establishes a mapping from names to symbols. At any given time, one package is current. The current package is the one that is the value of *package*. When using the Lisp reader, it is possible to refer to symbols in packages other than the current one through the use of package prefixes in the printed representation of the symbol.

Figure 11–1 lists some defined names that are applicable to packages. Where an operator takes an argument that is either a symbol or a list of symbols, an argument of nil is treated as an empty list of symbols. Any package argument may be either a string, a symbol, or a package. If a symbol is supplied, its name will be used as the package name.

      *modules*            import                     provide
      *package*            in-package                 rename-package
      defpackage           intern                     require
      do-all-symbols       list-all-packages          shadow
      do-external-symbols  make-package               shadowing-import
      do-symbols           package-name               unexport
      export               package-nicknames          unintern
      find-all-symbols     package-shadowing-symbols  unuse-package
      find-package         package-use-list           use-package
      find-symbol          package-used-by-list

             Figure 11–1: Some Defined Names related to Packages

Next: Standardized Packages, Previous: Package Concepts, Up: Package Concepts