Wasteful packaging
As I'm sat waiting for my local mirror to update so I can get some
test DVD images created, I've been looking through some of the larger
packages that have been taking a while. We have some huge packages
that are wasting space on CDs for release and (more importantly)
mirrors and their bandwidth.
I've just posted a bug against evolution, this being the one that
first grabbed my attention. In my mirror currently are:
sledge:/mirror/debian/pool/main/e/evolution$ ls -l evolution_*
-rw-rw-r-- 1 mirror users 14664 Mar 26 14:17 evolution_1.0.3-1.diff.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 1 mirror users 1052 Mar 26 14:17 evolution_1.0.3-1.dsc
-rw-rw-r-- 1 mirror users 10100044 Mar 31 19:02 evolution_1.0.3-1_alpha.deb
-rw-rw-r-- 1 mirror users 9113060 Apr 3 23:32 evolution_1.0.3-1_arm.deb
-rw-rw-r-- 1 mirror users 8730930 Mar 26 14:17 evolution_1.0.3-1_i386.deb
-rw-rw-r-- 1 mirror users 8701524 Apr 5 03:47 evolution_1.0.3-1_m68k.deb
-rw-rw-r-- 1 mirror users 9170000 Apr 3 06:47 evolution_1.0.3-1_powerpc.deb
-rw-rw-r-- 1 mirror users 8985026 Mar 30 14:17 evolution_1.0.3-1_s390.deb
-rw-rw-r-- 1 mirror users 9221054 Mar 31 19:02 evolution_1.0.3-1_sparc.deb
-rw-rw-r-- 1 mirror users 14926 Apr 12 21:47 evolution_1.0.3-2.diff.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 1 mirror users 1052 Apr 12 21:47 evolution_1.0.3-2.dsc
-rw-rw-r-- 1 mirror users 10100040 Apr 14 09:32 evolution_1.0.3-2_alpha.deb
-rw-rw-r-- 1 mirror users 8731152 Apr 12 21:47 evolution_1.0.3-2_i386.deb
-rw-rw-r-- 1 mirror users 11289000 Apr 14 06:17 evolution_1.0.3-2_ia64.deb
-rw-rw-r-- 1 mirror users 9169872 Apr 14 10:02 evolution_1.0.3-2_powerpc.deb
-rw-rw-r-- 1 mirror users 8984576 Apr 14 08:32 evolution_1.0.3-2_s390.deb
-rw-rw-r-- 1 mirror users 14843367 Mar 26 14:17 evolution_1.0.3.orig.tar.gz
That's ~9MB per binary package, * 2 for the two versions in the
pool. Looking more closely at the current i386 package, unpacked:
sledge:~/debian/evolution$ du -s usr/*
3660 usr/bin
6656 usr/lib
12 usr/sbin
14548 usr/share
Over half of the installed package is made up of stuff in /usr/share,
i.e. common arch-independent stuff like images, templates and i18n
data. A quick check of other packages suggests that similar metrics
apply for gnumeric, gnome-applets2, konqueror, ...
We _really_ should be packaging things like this better - the common
stuff should go into binary-all packages with appropriate
dependencies!
Comments?
--
Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK. steve@einval.com
<a href=http://www.einval.com/steve/>My home page</a>
"Can't keep my eyes from the circling sky, +------------------
"Tongue-tied & twisted, Just an earth-bound misfit, I..." |Finger for PGP key
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