[gentoo-portage-dev] What is a "meta package"?

[gentoo-portage-dev] What is a "meta package"?

[Amit Dor-Shifer]

Hi.
i read in 
http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/handbook/handbook.xml?part=2&chap=3
<QUOTE>
Never depend on a meta-package.
So don't depend on gnome-base/gnome, always depend on the specific 
libraries like libgnome.
<UNQUOTE>

Where can I find a definition of this term?

Is there some equery/qsearch invocation that returns a list of such 
packages (installed or available)?
Is there some ebuild setting that marks a package as being a "meta" 
package? Does gnome-base/gnome carry this setting?

Thanks,
Amit

Re: [gentoo-portage-dev] What is a "meta package"?

[Marijn Schouten (hkBst)]

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Amit Dor-Shifer wrote:
> Hi.
> i read in
> http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/handbook/handbook.xml?part=2&chap=3
> <QUOTE>
> Never depend on a meta-package.
> So don't depend on gnome-base/gnome, always depend on the specific
> libraries like libgnome.
> <UNQUOTE>
> 
> Where can I find a definition of this term?
> 
> Is there some equery/qsearch invocation that returns a list of such
> packages (installed or available)?
> Is there some ebuild setting that marks a package as being a "meta"
> package? Does gnome-base/gnome carry this setting?
> 
> Thanks,
> Amit
> 

Hi Amit,

a meta-package is a package that depends on a group of other packages but
doesn't contain any source of itself. Basically it's a shorthand for the entire
group for installing from command line.

Portage is getting explicit support for groups so I think we then no longer need
metapackages.

Marijn

- --
Sarcasm puts the iron in irony, cynicism the steel.

Marijn Schouten (hkBst), Gentoo Lisp project, Gentoo ML
<http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/lisp/>, #gentoo-{lisp,ml} on FreeNode
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Re: [gentoo-portage-dev] What is a "meta package"?

[Douglas Anderson]

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On Sun, Mar 8, 2009 at 10:36 PM, Amit Dor-Shifer <amitds@oversi.com> wrote:
> Is there some equery/qsearch invocation that returns a list of such packages
> (installed or available)?

The fact that it's a meta package tends to be in the description... so this might not be all inclusive, but ``eix -S "meta package"`` or ``emerge -S "meta package"`` finds quite a few.

-Doug


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