[clug] Debian meta-packages?

[Daniel Pittman]

Alex Satrapa <grail at goldweb.com.au> writes:

> 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

[...]

> 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.

No, there is not.  Debian policy is that packages MUST NOT modify
configuration belonging to other packages under /etc, which means that their
tools don't really support this well at all...

Also notable is that this would be a one-shot configuration change, while
using a tool like puppet means that you stay in configuration no matter what,
and have a much easier time rolling out changes in future.

Regards,
        Daniel
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