Copied mostly from node/1356276
Splitting from original D8 issue because the original issue became too large.
Problem/Motivation
With Drupal 7's vastly-improved install profile functionality, and the recently-improved drupal.org distribution packaging infrastructure, many new install profiles have been created, and they are awesome.
However, install profiles are not inheritable, so if you want to, say, take Drupal Commons, and base your site off of it, but add one or two extra modules in your own customized install profile, you have to clone the entire install profile and change it to your needs. Allowing install profiles to inherit from other profiles (just like themes can inherit from base/parent themes) would allow more code reuse, and make install profiles even more useful.
Proposed resolution
Modify code surrounding install profiles to allow base profiles to be loaded if defined by the currently-used install profile. An install profile could define a base by specifying base: BASE_PROFILE inside it's .info.yml file.
Remaining tasks
Review patch in #92 (latest for D8).
Write tests that verify a base install profile is being enabled/used when set in the active profile. (The latest patch makes the Standard profile inherit from Minimal).
Figure out why the search form block is causing the patch in #92 to fail.
User interface changes
none.
API changes
Install profiles can define base profiles using the syntax base: BASE_PROFILE inside their .info.yml files
Comments
Comment #2
Saphyel CreditAttribution: Saphyel as a volunteer commentedI think would be better use "base profile: whatever" because in the theme we use "base theme: classy".
Comment #3
Rajab Natshah CreditAttribution: Rajab Natshah at Vardot commentedI'm with Saphyel on having it as:
"base profile: lightning"
Comment #4
mpotter CreditAttribution: mpotter at Phase2 commentedThe latest patches in the original #1356276: Allow profiles to define a base/parent profile now handle profile inheritance of info and config. Also it uses "base profile" similar to "base theme" as suggested. Closing this now as a Dup.