Tasksel

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Tasksel is a Debian/Ubuntu tool that installs multiple related packages as a co-ordinated « task » onto your system.

This function is similar to that of meta-packages, and, in fact, most of the tasks available from tasksel are also available as meta-packages from the Ubuntu package managers (such as Synaptic Package Manager or KPackageKit). 

Installation

Because the package managers now have most of the tasks as meta-packages, tasksel is not installed by default on editions of Ubuntu (such as Desktop editions) that have package managers. (Tasksel is still installed by default on server editions).

If tasksel is not installed, install it from the command-line:

sudo apt-get install tasksel

Usage

To run tasksel from the command line, type:

sudo tasksel

the tasksel menu will be shown:

Already-installed tasks will have an asterisk beside their name. Select a task by scrolling down and pressing space. This will put an asterisk beside the selected task and mark it for installation. Removing an asterisk marks the task for removal. Once « ok » is selected the task installations and/or removals will take place using apt-get.

Command line arguments

You can also directly specify which task to install.

For instance, to add the Apache-MySQL-PHP stack to an existing system:

sudo tasksel install lamp-server

To see available (unistalled – u) and installed (i) tasks:

tasksel --list-task

For complete options, see the tasksel manpage:

man tasksel

Usage (alternative)

Tasks can also be installed with apt-get using the syntax:

sudo apt-get install the_name_of_the_task_you_want^

Examples:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop^
sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop^
sudo apt-get install lamp-server^

Note: The caret (^) was generally required at the end of the command in older versions of tasksel. It is not required in newer versions of tasksel.

Note – Calling tasks from apt-get is not documented anywhere. If you find a page that documents this, please update this page with a link.

Tasks List

Tasks are defined in .desc files found in /usr/share/tasksel. Debian derivatives can easily add tasks.

The default list available in Ubuntu can be viewed with this command-line:

grep Task /usr/share/tasksel/ubuntu-tasks.desc