[clug] Debian meta-packages?

[Alex Satrapa]

I'm interested in building a package for Debian which will:
 (a) install some dependencies (ie: a classic "meta-package")
 (b) reconfigure existing packages to a desired end-state

For example, I'd like to install package A, then update the configuration for package A so that it works as expected for my software without the package management system complaining. This is separate to network-specific settings - I want to install triggers in DHCP for example, which means installing the ISC DCHP server and then adding an entry to the config for "on commit". Effectively I want to plumb the components together, with further configuration being done by hand, through Puppet or whatever the end user decides to use for configuration management.

Alternatives for (b) include using Puppet to update the config and ensure that specific packages are installed, for the moment I just want to know if there's a clean way to do this kind of tweaking through a meta-package or something similar.

Perhaps I'm artificially separating the configuration into "plumbing components together" and "network/end-user configuration".

Alex