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jigdo vs binary diff



On Wed, Jun 09, 2004 at 08:45:05PM +0300, George Danchev wrote:
> what advantages I'll get when using jigdo to update my old image instead of 
> patching the old iso with rdiff.

Well, Debian doesn't offer CD image upgrades in rdiff/xdelta format. 
Generally, IMHO jigdo has the following advantages over binary diffs:

- jigdo allows you to update to your image from /any/ previous version of 
  the same image. That's most useful with weekly snapshots - imagine having 
  to download and apply 6 "patches" because you last fetched a weekly 
  snapshot 6 weeks ago.

- you can download all the changed/new packages from any Debian mirror, not 
  just designated "CD patch mirrors". With patches, IMHO many regular
  Debian mirrors would not be too excited about mirroring large patch
  files, so the few mirrors who offered them would be fairly busy.
  
- related to the point above: Debian does not need to duplicate the data 
  for the changed/new packages on the servers in a binary diff, which saves
  space. (jigdo can download these packages from the "normal archive" of
  packages on a Debian server.)

- jigdo allows completely different kinds of "updates", e.g. you can update 
  from a set of CD images to one DVD image, without downloading all the
  package data again.

- jigdo updates still work fine in case your old CD has read errors.

Cheers,

  Richard

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