NAME

       germinate-update-metapackage — update a set of metapackages generated from seeds

SYNOPSIS

       germinate-update-metapackage [--bzr] [--output-directory dir] [dist]

DESCRIPTION

       germinate-update-metapackage  assists  with  the  construction  and  update  of  “metapackages” (packages
       consisting solely of a list of dependencies) from a list of seed packages.   It  updates  binary  package
       stanzas in debian/control to reflect the current contents of the seeds, and updates debian/changelog with
       a description of the changes it made.

       germinate-update-metapackage  requires a configuration file, called update.cfg, in the current directory.
       The format is described below.

       If a non-option argument is given, it  specifies  the  distribution  for  which  metapackages  should  be
       generated (e.g. “unstable”).

OPTIONS

       --nodch
             Don't modify debian/changelog.

       --bzr
             Check  out  seeds  from  the bzr branch defined in the configuration file rather than fetching them
             directly from the URL defined there.  Requires bzr to be installed.

       -o, --output-directory dir
             Output the package lists in the specified directory.

CONFIGURATION FILE

       update.cfg uses Python's ConfigParser configuration file syntax, supporting interpolation as  defined  by
       SafeConfigParser.   It should have a DEFAULT section with a dist key indicating the default distribution,
       and a dist section (corresponding to that distribution).  It may also have a dist/bzr section  which  can
       override  the  seed_base  and  seed_dist  values from the dist section if the --bzr option is given.  The
       following keys are recognised in distribution sections:

       seeds (mandatory)
             Pass these seeds to the germinator for processing.

       output_seeds (optional, deprecated)
             Generate metapackages for these seeds.  If not specified, the value of seeds is used.  This  option
             is  usually  no  longer  necessary  now  that the value of seeds is automatically expanded for seed
             inheritance.

       architectures (mandatory)
             Generate metapackages for these architectures.

       archive_base/default (optional)
             Use this URL as the default base for fetching package indices from the  archive;  for  examples  of
             valid URLs, see deb lines in /etc/apt/sources.list, or the MIRROR argument to debootstrap(8).

       archive_base/arch (optional)
             Use  this  URL  as  the  base  for  fetching  package  indices  from  the archive for the specified
             architecture.  For each architecture being processed, at  least  one  of  archive_base/default  and
             archive_base/arch  must be present.  To try multiple URLs, separate them with commas or spaces; the
             newest version of each package across all archives will win.  Note that  debootstrap(8)  will  only
             use the first archive.

       seed_base (mandatory)
             The  base  URL  for  fetching  seeds.   To try multiple URLs (for example if a seed branch includes
             another branch stored at a different location), separate them with commas or spaces.

       seed_dist (optional)
             The tail of the URL for fetching seeds.  This will be appended to seed_base.  You will  often  want
             to  interpolate  the  value  of  dist into this value using ConfigParser's %(dist)s syntax.  If not
             specified, the value of dist is used.

       dists (optional)
             The distributions from which to fetch package  indices.   Listing  multiple  distributions  may  be
             useful,  for example, when examining both a released distribution and its security updates.  If not
             specified, the value of dist is used.

       components (mandatory)
             The archive components from which to fetch package indices.

       seed_map/seed (optional, deprecated)
             The seeds to be used as input for the metapackage corresponding to seed.  If specified,  this  will
             typically  be the list of seeds from which seed inherits, plus seed itself.  This option is usually
             no longer necessary; use a Task-Seeds header in the seed file instead.

       metapackage_map/seed (optional, deprecated)
             The metapackage name to output for seed.  If not specified, germinate-update-metapackage will  look
             for the name of the source package in which it is being run, remove "meta" from the end, and append
             the  seed  name.   This option is usually no longer necessary; use a Task-Metapackage header in the
             seed file instead.

EXAMPLE

       At the time of writing, the following configuration file is used  to  generate  the  kubuntu-meta  source
       package in the Ubuntu archive:

             [DEFAULT]
             dist: trusty

             [trusty]
             seeds: desktop full active
             architectures: i386 amd64 powerpc armhf arm64 ppc64el
             seed_base: http://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/seeds/
             seed_dist: kubuntu.%(dist)s
             archive_base/default: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/
             archive_base/ports: http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports/
             archive_base/powerpc: %(archive_base/ports)s
             archive_base/armhf: %(archive_base/ports)s
             archive_base/arm64: %(archive_base/ports)s
             archive_base/ppc64el: %(archive_base/ports)s
             components: main restricted universe

             [trusty/bzr]
             seed_base: bzr+ssh://bazaar.launchpad.net/~kubuntu-dev/ubuntu-seeds/ bzr+ssh://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-core-dev/ubuntu-seeds/
             seed_dist: kubuntu.%(dist)s

AUTHORS

       Gustavo Franco <stratus@debian.org>
       Colin Watson <cjwatson@canonical.com>

       germinate-update-metapackage  is  copyright © 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Canonical Ltd. and copyright ©
       2006 Gustavo Franco.  See the GNU General Public License version 2 or later for  copying  conditions.   A
       copy of the GNU General Public License is available in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL.

Ubuntu                                            Jul 18, 2007                   GERMINATE-UPDATE-METAPACKAGE(1)