Metapackage depends and recommends (again!)

johnraff · 2016-06-02 05:58:40

I extracted a list of the extra packages installed by bunsen-meta-all, by comparing what apt said it was going to install with what is on a fresh iso install. It's quite long in fact, and some, eg gnome-user-guide, are not small:

aptitude-doc-en
bsd-mailx
exim4-base
exim4-config
exim4-daemon-light
freepats
geoclue-2.0
gnome-mime-data
gnome-user-guide
gnumeric-doc
gstreamer0.10-x
gstreamer1.0-x
gvfs-bin
libart-2.0-2
libbonobo2-0
libbonobo2-common
libbonoboui2-0
libbonoboui2-common
libclass-accessor-perl
libcolamd2.8.0
libegl1-mesa-drivers
libgail18
libgnome-2-0
libgnome2-0
libgnome2-bin
libgnome2-common
libgnomecanvas2-0
libgnomecanvas2-common
libgnomeui-0
libgnomeui-common
libgnomevfs2-0
libgnomevfs2-common
libgnomevfs2-extra
libgtk2-notify-perl
libidl0
libio-string-perl
libjavascriptcoregtk-3.0-0
libjpeg-turbo-progs
liblockfile1
liblockfile-bin
libopenvg1-mesa
liborbit2
liborbit-2-0
libpaper-utils
libparse-debianchangelog-perl
libpython3.4
libreoffice-math
libsub-name-perl
libtimedate-perl
libturbojpeg1
libvisual-0.4-plugins
libwebkitgtk-3.0-0
libwebkitgtk-3.0-common
libyelp0
lp-solve
minissdpd
powermgmt-base
python3-uno
python-gconf
python-gnome2
python-pyorbit
vlc-plugin-samba
yelp
yelp-xsl

But, there seems to be a way out.
If Debian packages are put in the "metapackages" Section then by default any dependencies they bring in will be marked as manually installed, not auto as would be normal. Run

apt-config dump  | grep 'APT::Never-MarkAuto-Sections::'

to see. This setting comes from /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/01autoremove

A metapackage could be made with 'Section: metapackages' which depends on the BL apps list and can be installed with '--no-install-recommends' to install the regular packages without all those recommends listed above. If one of the packages the meta depends on is removed, then the metapackage will be removed too. However, all the other packages will remain because they're not marked as "auto". This is basically the same situation as if the system had been installed from the full iso.

I'm going to try a test package, but I think this is the way to go?

Last edited by johnraff (2016-06-04 03:32:08)

hhh · 2016-06-02 12:23:27

Sure!

johnraff · 2016-06-04 03:34:08

It wasn't that easy unfortunately. Apt in Jessie has a bug around that very APT::Never-MarkAuto-Sections configuration, reported by Raphael Herzog: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo … bug=793360

More to follow in due course...

#1 2016-06-02 05:58:40

Metapackage depends and recommends (again!)

#2 2016-06-02 12:23:27

Re: Metapackage depends and recommends (again!)

#3 2016-06-04 03:34:08

Re: Metapackage depends and recommends (again!)

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