Re: general question about jigdo, OS architectures and server load/space....
On Sun, Dec 17, 2006 at 01:30:51PM +0000, Michael Fothergill wrote:
>
> However, it does seem as though Etch AMD64 does share a reasonable number
> of files in common with Etch i386.......
>
> My new question is this:
>
> If you look on the Debian installer page you see that distributions of the
> OS for a variety of different architectures exist:
>
> [alpha] [amd64] [arm] [hppa] [i386] [ia64] [m68k] [mips] [mipsel]
> [powerpc] [sparc] [s390]
>
>
>
> My question is this:
>
> What degree of common files would exist between all or certain sub groups
> of these different architectures?
>
> Would there be enough in either all of them or a subset that it might make
> sense to make a separate downloadable common iso file image or jigdo file
> set that you could downnload from one common server address and then get
> only the extra files needed to make up the entire distribution for the each
> specific individual architecture from its own server site address?
>
> If so would this not save on server space allocation and download time?
I would assume, or at least trust, that if this was useful or helpful,
it would be done behind-the-scenes by the people who maintain this
portion of the debian infrastructure.
>
> My other question this is this.
>
> Is the reason that the number of common files to be found when comparing
> the Sarge 3.1 release of Debian and e.g the Etch RC1 is very low a function
> of the fact that huge changes have been made across the OS?
>
> Or is it that the underlying contents of a lot of files is identical to
> those found in Etch but they have been given different names or small
> changes have been made to them such that they are not absolutely identical
> any longer?
>
Think about it: if anything within a package changes (even fixing a
typo in a man page) then the version of the package changes. That's a
new package. As I understand it, jigdo makes CD/DVD images out of
packages off of the package mirrors. It doesn't look at what makes up a
package and just grab the new man page.
> Is it possible that Lenny could be written in such a way as to maximise the
> reuse of identical files from the point of jigdo that are used in Etch in
> such a way as not to undermine the innovative progress and develolpment of
> Lenny?
>
> Could all the architecture releases of Lenny be designed to make maximum
> use of jigdo in the ways I am describing or would it be a beaurocratic
> nightmare or a waste of time with no benefit, or worse would it cock up and
> interfere with the development of Lenny?
>
> If you think this a garbage idea feel free to say so.
>
I think it would break the atomic nature of packages and be asking jigdo
not just make CD/DVDs from packages but make packages from individual
files. I'm not saying it couldn't be done but it would in effect be a
new distribution of Linux.
Doug.
Reply to: