Re: Stop archive bloat: 47MB gmt-coast-full_19991001-1.deb

[Sven LUTHER <luther@debian.org>]

On Sat, Nov 06, 1999 at 06:39:24PM -0600, Rob Browning wrote:
> Brian Mays <brian@debian.org> writes:
> 
> > Exactly.  If the data is available elsewhere on the Internet, IMHO
> > it is better to package a mechanism for retrieving this data and
> > installing it into its proper place in the filesystem.
> 
> The problem is that this is untenable for users who either don't have
> net access or who have to pay through the nose for it.  That said, for
> most people, the install package mechanism is a better idea.
> 
> But I think with a little work, we could accomodate both groups quite
> well.  We could define an very simple "installer package mini-policy"
> which, if implemented, would make it easy to semi-automatically build
> a CD with all the bits that a given set of installer packages needs
> stored where the installers can find them.
> 
> For example, we could require that all installer packages have a
> script like <packagename>-getdata that when called fetches all the
> data files that that package needs and put them into a subdirectory
> named after the package, within a specified top-level directory.  So
> to build a CD for a given set of installer packages, you could say:
> 
>   for p in $installerpackages
>   do
>     ${p}-getdata /mnt/my/staging/area/package-data
>   done
> 
> and you'd end up with:
> 
>   /mnt/my/staging/area/package-data/rvplayer/*
>   /mnt/my/staging/area/package-data/gmt/*
> 
> Then the packages would just have to know where to look for them (or
> be told).

What about people having internet access, but not on the box they wish to
install dbeian on ? and don't have a CD for it ?

Also what if upstream moves the datas around, or decide not to distribue it
anymore ? We should at least have on place where it is and we are sure it will
stay there.

Friendly,

Sven LUTHER