Hi, This has been brought up many times before. The APT packages file is just too large to download everytime during an apt-get update. I believe rsync is too costly a solution, as it would tax a server when hundreds of people are doing apt-get update. I think it would be a good idea to use a patch file. As in, every time the Packages file is changed, a diff could be made available. So, everday, a file called Packages-`date -I` could be released. Hence, everytime the Packages file is updated, a suitable patch could be released. Patches upto say 30 revisions could be kept, and if one was way out of sync, then the whole Packages file could be downloaded. Also, it would be nice if the Packages file was signed, or some trust mechanism was available. I wouldn't mind working on integrating these things into apt, if people generally tend to agree upon them as a good idea. viral Please cc: me replies as I'm not on debian-devel -- There's someone in my head but its not me.
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