The Drupal installation system expects profiles to have certain features. These are implemented as functions that follow naming conventions like those of hooks. A function signature begins with the profile name.
For example, Drupal expects a function named<profilename>_profile_details() to exist, where<profilename> is replaced by the name of the profile. If this is not defined, the profile will not be available.
A .profile file should have the following functions:
<profilename>_profile_details():Provides basic information about the profile. (This is required for the profile to function.)<profilename>_profile_modules():Lists the modules that should be installed with this profile.<profilename>_profile_tasks():Handles the installation tasks.<profilename>_profile_task_list():Provides a list of tasks that this profile will perform during an install.
While these four functions are used directly by the installer, a .profile file may...