Bug#37999: PROPOSED]: A pre-install required space checking mechanism for Debian packages

[Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org>]

Hi,
>>"Richard" == Richard Braakman <dark@xs4all.nl> writes:

 Richard> Is a pregenerated du file necessary?  You already assume
 Richard> that you have the package at hand, so you might as well
 Richard> collect size information from the package directly.  That
 Richard> way, you can also handle differences in block sizes.  And it
 Richard> means that you don't have to change every package.

        Two reasons:
 a) The dus file shan't only be in the .deb package. I would like to
    add a by hand kind of directive that would upload the
    packag_ver.dus file separately, which can then be used to
    generate a master .dus file (when last tested, the size of the
    file was about 100k). Now, apt can download that file, and one can
    know a priori what the size is, without having to download the
    package itself.

        I would be very annoyed to download the xbooks package over a
        28.8 modem, only to learn I can't install it.

 b) Our upgrade install process is slow enough already not to add an
    additional time consuming extract step (I am willing to be
    persuaded otherwise on this issue).

        manoj
-- 
 You will have long and healthy life.
Manoj Srivastava   <srivasta@debian.org>  <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
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