Re: Propose Release Goals (delayed ;) - xz compression
On Wednesday 16 Oct 2013, Hideki Yamane wrote:
> Hi,
>
> As dpkg introduced xz compression by default, we can make whole
> packages xz-ed now. I think it's worth to try, so propose it as
> a release goal (I know it should be sent before its dead line, but
> please read).
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------ item)
> rebuild whole package with xz
>
> Benefit)
> users : it reduces download (update) time.
> mirror admins : it cuts traffic.
>
> How to archive it? (a.k.a. costs))
> Just rebuild your package with dpkg (>=1.17.0), cheap.
> (it's not in jessie yet, Bug#717983 prevents to migrate to testing,
> but now fixed in git and pending).
>
> How to check it?)
> Yes, just "ar -x" and you'll see it as data.tar.{gz,bz2,xz}, easy.
>
> Trackable?)
> So yes, just do it as above for whole repository and track numbers
> and list non-xz-ed package.
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------
>
> Any idea for this?
> It's worth to try *and* not so difficult, IMHO.
The only problem is that on small machines (things like the BeagleBone)
xz compression requires enough memory that you have to enable swap to
use dpkg. Now on a machine with a sensible disk this is not a problem,
but on a machine where the "disk" is an SD-card it is a disaster.
David
Reply to: