Public bug reported:
The metapackages seem like an ugly way around system limitations.
There's a need to ease the installation of a group of packages because
they are tightly related to eachother eventhough they do not depend on
eachother. For this, Ubuntu uses metapackages but it does make for a
dependancy which should not be there in the first place. This
dependancy poses problems when trying to uninstall one of the depending
packages (it will claim that the metapackage needs to be uninstalled)
and it poses problems when removing the metapackage, its dependancies
can be uninstalled because they are not needed anymore which is not
necessarily true.
To solve it, the debian packaging system could be extended to allow the
concept of package groups or true metapackages. They are regarded
separatly from the real packages and real packages are not being linked
as a dependancy. It will simply serve as a grouping. You can install a
group and uninstall individual packages as if they were installed
individually.
As an extra, a user should be able to make his own groups and save this
group to a file. This could be integrated with the backup tool.
Currently the metapackage involves knowledge on how to create packages
and this is not necessary for a normal user.
For example, before upgrading his system he can make a backup of his
installed packages as a group. If his installation gets broken and a
clean install is necessary, he could just import his backed up package
group and automatically all the software, that he installed before, gets
installed.
Second example, a guy is interested in starting webdevelopment and his
friend has a webdevelopment package group available (contains HTML IDE -
browser - developer browser plugin - java compiler - java ide - ...).
This friend sends him the package group file and he can install the
group without needing to search and mark each individual package. It is
not the major goal but this could enhance community interaction.
** Affects: Ubuntu
Importance: Undecided
Status: Unconfirmed
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Extend the debian packaging system to the concept of package groups
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/113319
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