Bug#59968: apt: apt doesn't use an rsync-ish transfer

[Daniel Dent <ddent@vc.bc.ca>]

Package: apt
Version: 0.3.16
Severity: wishlist

Hello,

I think that APT should use some sort of an rsyncish transfer to get
packages/updates.

This could be done many ways, some of which could be:

* run rsyncd on debian sites(+mirrors)
* have seperate packages with diffs from the last / last few versions
* to keep less clutter, have it at the begginning/end of packages, and
clients could request partial gets

This would greatly reduce the time for download, and the load on the server,
and would increase the updates that people performed ;-).

Another (rather advanced) extra to this would be to have apt re-package
things from the files on your system (when lacking archives) to help do the
rsync.

Enjoy!

-- System Information
Debian Release: potato
Kernel Version: Linux vc 2.2.13 #1 Mon Dec 20 23:49:37 PST 1999 i586 unknown

Versions of the packages apt depends on:
ii  libc6          2.1.2-11       GNU C Library: Shared libraries and Timezone
ii  libstdc++2.10  2.95.2-5       The GNU stdc++ library

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