Re: bzip2 compressed files
On Fri, Jan 22, 1999 at 03:28:04PM +0000, Russell Coker wrote:
> >> Would it be possible to have files such as Contents*.gz also provided in bzip2
> >> format to reduce download times when using slow links?
> >
> >Good idea. And Packages files too.
> >
> >But that would need implementation in dselect, and will only work
> >if bzip2 is already installed. Bzip2 package is not in base IIRC,
> >and that would require a bit more changing, like adding another
> >180.6k to base_2.2.tgz. I'm sure that there are more problems...
>
> I believe that eventually bzip2 support should be added to dselect and
> dpkg (I would like to have packages such as xbooks compressed by bzip2).
That would be nice as an additional option...
> I doubt that 180K would be added if it became base_2.2.tbz2, in fact
> it would probably be smaller.
...but I wouldn't do that *and* remove that .tgz completely, or
having all the .debs converted to tbz2.
Bzip2 is very nice, and has become pretty fast, but gzip's advantage
is that it is very widely used, and has become a tradition. Making
Debian files uncompressable on most other systems just to reduce the
size of some files by let's say 15% seems unreasonable *now*.
Believe me, I *would* feel the difference (writing this at CONNECT 16800),
but I feel also that it is not worth of this kind of radical change.
BTW if we leave the tgz-inside debs along with tbz2-inside ones, the
mirror list would shorten, because it would double (already alarming :)
archive size.
> htget ftp://ftp.debian.org/.../Packages.bz2 | bzip2 -d >
> /var/state/apt/lists/ftp.debian.org.whatever
>
> Then you have to get apt to recognise the files, once APT is happy then
> everything will be fine.
I'll try that, thanks.
> But the real solution is to change dselect and dpkg.
Indeed, but only as an option, not the default.
--
enJoy -*/\*- http://jagor.srce.hr/~jrodin/
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