Right now the external packages listed in the packages.yaml configuration file return immediately from Package.do_install:

...
        # No installation needed if package is external
        if self.spec.external:
            tty.msg("%s is externally installed in %s" %
                    (self.name, self.spec.external))
            return
...

This means that they don't trigger any kind of post-install hook (i.e. no module file gets generated for them) and they don't get registered in the index.yaml DB.

I would like to change the behavior so that external packages are treated mostly like normal packages, in particular :

• external packages will be added to the DB (recording information on whether they are external or not)
• post-install hooks are triggered for them (and module files get generated)

Can this be of interest for reintegration into develop?