Re: .deb format: let's use 0.939, zstd, drop bzip2

[Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk>]

Ansgar writes ("Re: .deb format: let's use 0.939, zstd, drop bzip2"):
> `ar` needs to be replaced for the file size limitation mentioned in the
> initial mail: ar represents file size as a 10 digit decimal number[1]
> which limits the members (control.tar.*, data.tar.*) to ~10G.
...
> Replacing `ar` is an incompatible format change.  So if we already do
> an incompatible change, it is an appropriate time to bundle any other
> incompatible changes (if there are any).  That is why I suggested that
> it might be useful to also replace the `tar` archives with another
> format.

As has been pointed out, we have done many incompatible format
changes.  Every new compression algorithm is one.  It isn't really a
big problem, when managed properly.

So I strongly disagree.  The archive size limit is getting more and
more annoying.  We should not let fixing that be entangled with some
random other nice-to-haves.

Personally I still like my multi-ar-member proposal here
  https://lists.debian.org/debian-dpkg/2016/05/msg00027.html
Guillem didn't seem entirely unreceptive but nothing came of it.

Ian.

-- 
Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk>   These opinions are my own.

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