rsync vs. diff for updating the Packages lists.

[Erich Schubert <erich@debian.org>]

I think that the proposed diff-based solution will _doubtless_ be faster
than your rsync-based solution.

See: rsync has to transmit data to check which parts of the Packages
have changed, then transmit the blocks that do have changed.

Whereas the diff based solution knows your old (because you request the
diff based on your md5sum) as well as the new version and can create the
exact diff immedeately.
Well, transferring exactly only the differences should be the fastest
thing you can have...

Especially if you do use appropriate diff options. In this case using
"diff -e" could be about the minimum of data you need to transmit.

And the CPU load of the server will be _much_ lower, it'll work just
fine with http proxies - and does require only low-level "ed" functions
that easily could be intergrated "statically" into apt.

Greetings,
Erich


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