How to replicate a Craft installation as a starting point I want to create a basic Craft installation that I can use as my starting point. I don't want to just start with the Craft download, because there is a lot of common setup I don't want to repeat every time.

My problem is making sure I properly pay Pixel &amp; Tonic for a new license each time I need one.
Relevant link: http://buildwithcraft.com/help/license-enforcement

But the TLDR is that purchases are tied to your craft/config/license.key file and the purchase will follow that file wherever it goes.

So as long as your replication script ignores that file, you'll get a fresh one tied to Craft Personal Edition the first time that Craft sees it's has an internet connection and you can make a new purchase.

Additionally, and regardless of edition, Craft will tie the license.key file to a domain when it thinks it's being run on a "public" domain.  Here is how we determine what is public.

Even if Craft gets that wrong (maybe you develop on public staging domaina.com, but the site will ultimately be on a public domainb.com) and Craft ties the license.key file to the staging domaina.com, the worst that will happen is that when you deploy the license.key file to domainb.com, you'll get a alert in the control panel saying something to the affect of:

"This license.key file is already in use on domaina.com.  Would you like to transfer it to domainb.com?"

None of the site's functionality will be affected.