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

[Joey Hess <joey@kitenet.net>]

Manoj Srivastava wrote:
>         No, we can add a byhand directive to the rules file that would
>  upload the .dus file separately to Master, where it can be used to
>  generate a master .dus file (one each for main, contrib, non-free
>  ..., etc).
> 
>         When we tested it a year ago, theis file was about
>  100k. (using gz; bzip2 may help ofset the increase in size of
>  the distribution)
> 
>         So now apt just downloads this file (this can be optional)
>  along with the Packages file; and we know the size requirements
>  before downloading the package.

Ok, that's a doable option, though it'll be a lot simpler to just make a
script that traverses the archive, examines every .deb file, pulls the du
infomation out of them and generates the master file. That doesn't require
modifying every package and adding yet another file that must be uploaded
(and aren't byhand files installed by hand?)

But how is putting the info in this master file any better than putting it
in Packages? The master file needs to be kept synced with the Packages file,
so it still must be downloaded.

-- 
see shy jo