Create simplest possible meta-package to install multiple software packages at once and quickly setup familiar environment.
Install equivs utility.
$ sudo apt-get install equivs
Create configuration file for meta-package.
$ equivs-control my-terminal-utilities
Inspect created configuration template.
$ cat my-terminal-utilities
### Commented entries have reasonable defaults. ### Uncomment to edit them. # Source: <source package name; defaults to package name> Section: misc Priority: optional # Homepage: <enter URL here; no default> Standards-Version: 3.9.2 Package: <package name; defaults to equivs-dummy> # Version: <enter version here; defaults to 1.0> # Maintainer: Your Name <yourname@example.com> # Pre-Depends: <comma-separated list of packages> # Depends: <comma-separated list of packages> # Recommends: <comma-separated list of packages> # Suggests: <comma-separated list of packages> # Provides: <comma-separated list of packages> # Replaces: <comma-separated list of packages> # Architecture: all # Multi-Arch: <one of: foreign|same|allowed> # Copyright: <copyright file; defaults to GPL2> # Changelog: <changelog file; defaults to a generic changelog> # Readme: <README.Debian file; defaults to a generic one> # Extra-Files: <comma-separated list of additional files for the doc directory> # Files: <pair of space-separated paths; First is file to include, second is destination> # <more pairs, if there's more than one file to include. Notice the starting space> Description: <short description; defaults to some wise words> long description and info . second paragraph
Modify configuration file to reflect meta-package dependencies.
$ cat my-terminal-utilities
Section: misc Priority: optional Standards-Version: 3.9.2 Version: 1.0+artificial Package: my-terminal-utilities Depends: git, tmux, vim, ncdu, htop, curl, jq, httpie Description: essential terminal utilities several useful utilities
Build meta-package.
$ equivs-build my-terminal-utilities
dh_testdir dh_testroot dh_prep dh_testdir dh_testroot dh_install dh_install: Compatibility levels before 9 are deprecated (level 7 in use) dh_installdocs dh_installdocs: Compatibility levels before 9 are deprecated (level 7 in use) dh_installchangelogs dh_compress dh_fixperms dh_installdeb dh_installdeb: Compatibility levels before 9 are deprecated (level 7 in use) dh_gencontrol dh_md5sums dh_builddeb dpkg-deb: building package 'my-terminal-utilities' in '../my-terminal-utilities_1.0+artificial_all.deb'. The package has been created. Attention, the package has been created in the current directory, not in ".." as indicated by the message above!
Install created package.
$ sudo dpkg -i my-terminal-utilities_1.0+artificial_all.deb
(Reading database ... 27051 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack my-terminal-utilities_1.0+artificial_all.deb ... Unpacking my-terminal-utilities (1.0+artificial) over (1.0+artificial) ... dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of my-terminal-utilities: my-terminal-utilities depends on git; however: Package git is not installed. my-terminal-utilities depends on tmux; however: Package tmux is not installed. my-terminal-utilities depends on ncdu; however: Package ncdu is not installed. my-terminal-utilities depends on htop; however: Package htop is not installed. my-terminal-utilities depends on jq; however: Package jq is not installed. my-terminal-utilities depends on httpie; however: Package httpie is not installed. dpkg: error processing package my-terminal-utilities (--install): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured Errors were encountered while processing: my-terminal-utilities
Resolve dependencies.
$ sudo apt-get --fix-broken install
Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Correcting dependencies... Done The following additional packages will be installed: git git-man htop httpie jq libcurl3-gnutls liberror-perl libevent-2.0-5 libjq1 libonig4 libpopt0 libpython-stdlib libutempter0 ncdu python python-cffi-backend python-chardet python-cryptography python-enum34 python-idna python-ipaddress python-minimal python-openssl python-pkg-resources python-pyasn1 python-pygments python-requests python-setuptools python-six python-urllib3 python2.7 python2.7-minimal rsync tmux Suggested packages: git-daemon-run | git-daemon-sysvinit git-doc git-el git-email git-gui gitk gitweb git-arch git-cvs git-mediawiki git-svn lsof strace python-doc python-tk python-cryptography-doc python-cryptography-vectors python-enum34-doc python-openssl-doc python-openssl-dbg doc-base ttf-bitstream-vera python-socks python-setuptools-doc python-ntlm python2.7-doc binfmt-support The following NEW packages will be installed: git git-man htop httpie jq libcurl3-gnutls liberror-perl libevent-2.0-5 libjq1 libonig4 libpopt0 libpython-stdlib libutempter0 ncdu python python-cffi-backend python-chardet python-cryptography python-enum34 python-idna python-ipaddress python-minimal python-openssl python-pkg-resources python-pyasn1 python-pygments python-requests python-setuptools python-six python-urllib3 python2.7 python2.7-minimal rsync tmux 0 upgraded, 34 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. 1 not fully installed or removed. Need to get 11.0 MB of archives. After this operation, 49.5 MB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] [...] Setting up python-chardet (2.3.0-2) ... Setting up python-cryptography (1.7.1-3) ... Setting up python-requests (2.12.4-1) ... Setting up httpie (0.9.8-1) ... Setting up python-openssl (16.2.0-1) ... Setting up my-terminal-utilities (1.0+artificial) ... Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.24-11+deb9u1) ...
Verify that meta-package is marked as installed.
$ apt-cache policy my-terminal-utilities
my-terminal-utilities:
Installed: 1.0+artificial
Candidate: 1.0+artificial
Version table:
*** 1.0+artificial 100
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
Verify that dependencies are installed (requires apt-rdepends package as described earlier).
$ apt-rdepends --print-state --state-follow=none my-terminal-utilities
Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done my-terminal-utilities Depends: curl [Installed] Depends: git [Installed] Depends: htop [Installed] Depends: httpie [Installed] Depends: jq [Installed] Depends: ncdu [Installed] Depends: tmux [Installed] Depends: vim [Installed]