Re: Bio-Linux

[Andreas Tille <andreas@an3as.eu>]

On Thu, Sep 13, 2018 at 06:56:49PM +0100, Tony Travis wrote:
> Please forgive my ignorance, but can one meta-package include another?

Yes.  A metapackage can depend from any package - thus also from
metapackages.  The packaging system does not make any distinction
between "normal packages" and metapackages.  The term metapackage
is just a hint for human beeings that this package has basically no
content than dependencies.
 
> Ideally, I would like "bio-linux-server" to include "bio-linux-desktop"
> so we don't have to duplicate a list of dependencies in both packages.

That's fine.  The only "drawback" would be that the web sentinel does
not (yet!) resolve those dependencies inside a metapackage.  The idea to
do this is older than 10 years but was never implemented.

BTW, currently the name of the packages would be biolinux-server and
biolinux-desktop.  If the dash should be inbetween I'd suggest to rename
the source package and the repository in the same way with dash.

Kind regards

     Andreas.

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