Splitting CDs.
Every time a scheme for splitting CDs is suggested, there are people
who are not happy with it.
I don't think it is worth spending much time worrying about pleasing
everyone by getting the best possible split for slink. We will
just have to go through the whole process again for potato, and
every release after that.
What is better is to develop mechanisms for describing a generic layout
of a CD and a set of CDs so that:
- installation tools know which disk where each package is
- installation tools can add or remove a CD or CD
set at a time from package databases
- vendor add-on CDs are completely possible
- ftp/http sites can use the same techniques and tools
What I think is a bit of a waste of time is:
- arguing over whether Extras or "math" or "doc" should go
on the first or second CD (vendors will want to make different
decisions about this anyway).
- basing any installation techniques on rules such as
"look for extras on CD 2". Eventually individual
sections+priority will not even fit on a single CD.
- assuming CDs (instead of floppies, DVDs or Zip disks).
Once you have the methods and the tools for doing a multi-CD
installation, you just need to make an arbitrary decision about
which ordering would be (nicest|most efficient|cleanest|most pure|whatever)
for your particular Debian distribution, and divide the packages up
onto the media.
--
Because I dislike being quoted I lie almost constantly when talking
about my work.
-- Terry Gilliam
Tyson Dowd <tyson@tyse.net> http://tyse.net/
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