What is the difference between the mail-server^
task and the mail-stack-delivery
package?
Ubuntu – the difference between mail-server^ task and the mail-stack-delivery package
mail-servermetapackages
mail-servermetapackages
What is the difference between the mail-server^
task and the mail-stack-delivery
package?
Best Answer
Visit the mail-stack-delivery package page and download the tar.gz containing the Debian/Ubuntu packaging.
Open the
debian/control
file and look for lines beginning withProvides:
like this one:You can see that
dovecot-imapd
provides a package namedimap-server
, which is a virtual package, as defined in the Debian Policy Manual:Edit:
mail-server^
is not a metapackage, it's a task as defined in/usr/share/tasksel/**/*.desc
Apt can understand task if the "^" is appended to the task name but the installation process is a bit different from what tasksel is doing.
Visit Should I use tasksel, tasks in APT or install regular metapackages? for a complete description of both installation processes.
In terms of installed packages, you can easily dry-run
apt-get install
for bothmail-server^
andmail-stack-delivery
:The task
mail-server
will install:But
mail-stack-delivery
will install those packages instead:I hope that answers your initial question.