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.