From PackageKit 0.3.3 onwards, a new type of package is supported called a collection.
What gpk-application looks like with collection support
A collection is a metapackage that can represent a group, where the package mapping is done inside the backend. It is not like a catalog where an external file provides a meta-group. This enables the “group install” and “group remove” functionality people have been requesting since version 0.1.0, without get another abstract group mapping or extra API to support.
I’ve made a few changes in the daemon to properly support this new type, and in the yum backend Tim Lauridsen has added support using the comps group mapping. Mike Langlie has drawn us some great icons, and Anders F Björklund implemented collections for smart, and helped us with the design process. The extra type should be trivial to add to other backends too.
We added the feature in just a few hours of hacking, as everyone was working together. I’m amazed at how people work together so well all over the globe, in different timezones and with different work priorities – thanks guys.
Comments, as always, appreciated
That’s great!
An additional use could be one link / .catalog file on a download page, instead of individual links to every distribution.
For APT, does this map directly to its “native” meta packages (like gnome-devel)?
@oliver:
Not yet, but I guess it can. How the backend maps data to catalogs is completly left up to the backend author.
Looking sweet! Hope kde4 will have something similar using qt4…
@Dread Knight:
It does! kpackagekit!
Oh nice ! Could we make a catalog of audio codecs with this for example ?
Is it similar to yum groupinstall ?
@Bob:
Sure, you can make a codec colllection — it’ll even expand if you add the livna repo if the group name is the same. Internally it’s very similar to groupinstall.
Very nice. Could collections be sorted first? So, collections (alphabetically) first, then individual packages (alphabetically) after that.
Also, if you mark a collection to be installed, is it clear what packages will get pulled in with it?
Mike did a really nice job on the icons!
Can’t say much about the actual software as I haven’t tried it yet, and yeah, you know me, all about the graphics anyway… ;)
Hah, great!
But in the screenshot one cannot see which packages will be installed with sound-and-video. Shouldn’t this information be given in the description of the collection?
I’m afraid I think this is a very bad solution. Please read my post to the fedora-devel-list for what I don’t like about it:
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-September/msg01870.html