We've already discussed numerous packages and how to install them on Linux in a comprehensive guide published on this blog some time ago. Now it's time to talk about meta-packages , which many users are unfamiliar with or have only heard of a few times. Meta-packages allow us to group several programs along with their dependencies for installation in a single step. This is a very useful feature that can save time and effort.
Many distributions use them for system installation, to install desktop environments and their applications (see KDE and GNOME), to install software packages with the same purpose, such as installing all the network utility packages of a distro with a single metapackage, etc. The applications are numerous, and you can surely imagine many more.
But it's not just developers of large software packages or administrators who can use them; you can also use and create them to install packages of programs you frequently use, saving you the trouble of searching for them one by one after installing your distribution or after formatting. For example, Debian (and derivatives) uses equivs, a tool for creating these types of meta-packages. To start using it, install this package on your distribution, and then you'll have "equivs-control" and "equivs-build," the two tools that will help you create them.
- Create the configuration file with:
equivs-control nombre_del_fichero
- We edit the file with our favorite editor, for example:
gedit nombre_del_fichero
- We fill, according to our needs, at least the values:
- Package: where you put the name of the package
- Version: where you put the version.
- Depends - Specifies a comma separated list of dependencies.
- Architecture - The architecture for which the package is intended. Here you can specify "all" without quotes to select them all or a specific one.
- File: you can add files if you want.
- Others: if you want and have the knowledge, you can fill in the rest.
- Create the meta package:
equivs-build nombre_del_fichero