What is in ubuntu-restricted-extras?

This is probably actually a more general question which is : how do I see which packages will be installed when I install a metapackage? In this specific instance I have mostly only found vague descriptions like

Installing this package will pull in support for MP3 playback and decoding, support for various other audio formats (GStreamer plugins), Microsoft fonts, Java runtime environment, Flash plugin, LAME (to create compressed audio files), and DVD playback.

from http://packages.ubuntu.com/lucid/ubuntu-restricted-extras

apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras tells me that I am installing one package: ubuntu-restricted-extras.

Especially in this case, I'd like to know what I'm putting on my computer and what agreements I am tacitly agreeing to by doing so. I'd also sort of like to know what the difference between the various *ubuntu-restricted-extras packages are.

Solution 1:

The ubuntu-restricted-extras has the following:

flashplugin-installer
gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg
gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
gstreamer0.10-pitfdll
gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad
gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly
gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse
gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse
icedtea6-plugin
libavcodec-extra-52
libmp4v2-0
ttf-mscorefonts-installer
unrar

Due to the legal status of the software included in ubuntu-restricted-extras, the package is not included by default in Ubuntu.

You may also take a look at Ubuntu Packages

Solution 2:

Use this

apt-cache show <package name> | grep Depends:
apt-cache show <package name> | grep Recommends:

or

apt-cache depends <package name>

You can use this for see specific packages to be installed in your system:

 $ apt-get install -s <package name> | grep Inst | cut -d " " -f 2