About Metapackages
A metapackage is used to bundle multiple packages/metapackages together into one install. The packages can be required or optional. Like a package, a metapackage can have metadata and scripts associated with it.
The packages bundled with a metapackage can be inside the metapackage, on the same level as the metapackage, or at a custom location.
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A metapackage (with extension .mpkg) is an OS X bundle, meaning that it appears as a single file in the Finder, but is really a directory. The structure of a metapackage is as follows:
- Foo.mpkg
- Contents
- Info.plist
- Packages
- a.pkg
- b.pkg
- c.pkg
- PkgInfo
- Resources
- Localized resources in .lproj directories
- package_version
- Scripts
- Other resources
The italicized items can be created by PackageMaker. The package author is responsible for all other items. For a metapackage with packages inside the metapackage, you will need to copy the packages yourself.