a more efficient download process?
Dear Debian-Developers All Over The World!
may i introduce my,
proposal for a more efficient download process
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I. the reason why i suggest a patch-oriented download process
II. a brief description
II.A. on the users side
II.B. on the upload and storage side
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I. the reason why i suggest a patch-oriented download process
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downloading a huge deb-package can sometimes be painful, especially when
people have only access to a slow internet connection; painful e.g. when
security fixes are made to the open-office packages. so this leads to
what i call a extra-copy with just some kb of changes. this also is
painful for those who have to download from sid, to have the latest
state of development. this is not a critic on apt or dpkg! no. apt and
dpkg are one of the reason why i use debian. but i think the lack of an
efficient download process can be fixed. i even believe this idea is not
new and already included in other distributions and also on the mind of
many debian developers and users (e.g.: me):
II. a brief description
-----------------------
please let me explain what is on my mind. it may or may not be a good
idea. i don't claim to be a professional but want to share my thoughts.
thank's! and as i have found out, there was already a similar discussion
on debian-devel mailing list just this month. but maybe this can help
anyway. i have already tried to sent to debian-devel but with no
success. maybe the server is very busy! so if you are interessted...
II.A. on the users side
-----------------------
apt and probably dpkg need of course some changes. but as i believe
these changes aren't that big. so how to patch a package when there is
no local copy of an old one? (this was part of the discussion on
debian-devel) there is a local copy of the old one: the installed one!
so there is a way to reproduce the old package to it's almost original
state, mentioning the conffiles which get manipulated through the
install-process. so i suggest not a deb-package oriented patching but a
file oriented. conffiles should just get replaced with the original or
new version. the other files mainly can be patched. the deb-package
interna md5sum then can be used to verify the originality of the new
package. please have a look at 'dpkg-repack' by joeyh. and after
patching, the package can be foisted on dpkg. so i think dpkg needs no
hacks. apt has to care about the efficient download- and patchment process.
this can lead to this:
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if a patch is available:
1. look in /var/cache/apt/packages for the package to be updated. if the
old one is there patch it's files. md5sum. happy? if not...
2. try to repack the package with dpkg-repack. patch the files. md5sum.
if no success...
3. download the whole package. not happy, but well. or download the
current tree-package and apply all patches.
II.B. on the upload and storage side
------------------------------------
the upload process may need some more changes though (e.g.: for
automation). if this ever comes true, there will have to be a period of
time where both, the old way and this way have to work, of course. this
will lead to the fact that there is more space required to store the
packages and patches; i am sure about this! then there is also the
question on how to make the patches available. i believe things can be
left as they are and let apt resolve the download of patches. in
the end, obviosly there only will be meta-packages representing the
original and new package. so things on the users side can be left as
they are. the user only will experience a faster download.
proposal end
--
greetings from austria
well, though i think i can't fix that problem, but i believe i can make
a workaround!
*********************
curt manucredo
hansycm@a1.net
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity,
and I'm not sure about the former." -- Albert Einstein
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