--- title: "Assembling Virtual Package Contents" order: 5 ---

Virtual packages are essentially references to other packages and resources, and before a virtual package can be consumed, it must first be "assembled" into a regular package.

Assembling a virtual package is essentially following pointers to resources and combining the contents of those resources. Once this is done, it's indistinguishable from a regular package and is therefore no longer considered "virtual". It's therefore a one-way process.

To assemble a virtual package, the following logic must be applied: