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Re: bloat in libdebian-installer



Bastian Blank wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 16, 2003 at 04:25:08PM -0400, Joey Hess wrote:
> > Here we have a function that is used in one powerpc specific module, and
> > in one utility program that is not installed as part of any d-i boot
> > image. And yet this function is included on all our boot media, which
> > is always almost full.
> 
> this is a realy bad example. this function is used in a bunch of
> packages.

You seem to have completly missed my point.

This function is used in two binaries in the whole tree. My previous
email provides a grep of the entire CVS tree to show which ones.

All other users of this function using it by calling the mapdevfs
program. To move this function out of libd-i, all of one program
(yaboot-installer) would need a trivial modification.

> the function needs nearly 1kb code, a binary for this needs at least
> 8kb. moving them out don't save anything.

By your numbers, it saves 1 kilobtye on the boot media. That is a
significant part of some of our boot media, and a *very* significant
part of the free space on some of them. A binary for this function
already exists: mapdevfs. Moreover, that binary has no reason to go on
the boot media, since all users of it run after the retreivers are
configured.


This was one example, shall I find some more? Or do you want to account
for why libdebian-installer *doubled* in size in its last release?


Multicall binaries that call back to very special-purpose functions in a
large monlithic library is not an appropriate design for d-i. You seem
to be promoting both. In my latest release, I moved the di-utils-shell
part of di-utils out of the multicall binary, which is not included on
the initrd, and turned it into the postinst of the package. If I had
left it in the multicall binary instead, and included that on the
initrd, it would have wasted ~1.5k with its layers and layers of
redirection. (Incidentially, my change also fixed the menu item.)

It semes to me that you don't know how to think about saving space in
d-i. And please stop committing things that are broken.

-- 
see shy jo

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