Re: *-doc package should not gzip PDF file

[Eduard Bloch <edi@gmx.de>]

#include <hallo.h>
* Osamu Aoki [Sat, Jun 24 2006, 08:35:53PM]:

> > If one really really need to gzip, then make all applications in the
> > default Debian system able to handle gzipped files so there is no need
> > to unzip them to your local area and in fact use more space than
> > needed. 
> 
> The point is, if this mechanism is active, there is no point to gzip
> pdf/ps/txt file in /usr/share/doc/* in regular package either.

Of course there is. In regular packages huge docs are just balast. You
hardly need those files, maybe once to get the package running. OTOH doc
packages are installed explicitely when the user wants to use the docs.

I would drop this "docs must be compressed" rule from the policy and
make it a recommendation instead. Something like "Documentation files in
/usr/share/doc shall be compressed with gzip unless they are intended
for regular use, eg. for accompanying documentation (...-doc) packages."

Eduard.