Re: Please test gzip -9n - related to dpkg with multiarch support
* Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org>, 2012-02-08, 21:02:
Let's assume compressor (gzip/bzip2/xz/etc) version M gets uploaded to
sid generating a reproducible output across all current architectures.
Time passes, compressor version N (and even O and P and Q etc) gets
uploaded, which starts producing new ouput (on each of those versions).
A new architecture gets added to Debian, and because previous
compressor versions are not in the archive anymore, all packages built
with them have different checksums than the new ones. This means *all*
those packages have to be binNMUed across *all* the architectures, or
the porters need to hunt down every specific compressor version used to
build those packages to be able to reproduce the build on their arch.
In practice, the only compressor we need to care is gzip, which is not
actively maintained upstream[0]. Chances that a new version of it will
break large number of packages are minute.
But anyway, I believe that in the long run we should simply deprecate
compressing stuff in /usr/share/doc/.
[0] From
<http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gzip/2010-02/msg00044.html>:
"[...] gzip is in maintenance-only mode. [...] I am working on gzip
solely to fix bugs and maintain a certain level of portability and
robustness."
--
Jakub Wilk
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