Date: Mon, 08 Jul 2002 15:41:31 -0700 From: Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com> To: Mark Valentine <mark@thuvia.demon.co.uk> Cc: Doug Barton <DougB@freebsd.org>, Garrett Wollman <wollman@lcs.mit.edu>, arch@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Package system flaws? Message-ID: <3D2A151B.4261B51@softweyr.com> References: <200207081455.g68Etclk063764@dotar.thuvia.org>
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Mark Valentine wrote:
>
> > From: Doug Barton <DougB@freebsd.org>
> > Date: Mon 8 Jul, 2002
> > Subject: Re: Package system flaws?
>
> > On Mon, 8 Jul 2002, Mark Valentine wrote:
> > > Compressing the "metadata + binary tarball" just lost you the ability to
> > > access the metadata without uncompressing the whole caboodle.
> >
> > Well, if people are dead set on having both things in the same package (I
> > still think two seperate files is a cleaner solution)
>
> My earlier suggestion actually said just about the same thing, with the
> _option_ of storing the two (or more) parts in an uncompressed archive
> instead of a directory, for ease of handling.
>
> In light of Wes' comments on storing the metadata, I'd modify my examples
> as follows.
>
> Example 1: simple package, not sub-packaged.
>
> $ ls /var/spool/pkg/foo-x.y
> base.bz2 package.xml
Ick. Why not have the XML include the base.bz2 file in whatever encoding
(including direct binary) we deem appropriate? If the XML descrbing
the binary blob includes the length of the blob, you can skip it with
a single seek and continue reading the XML metadata. If you want truly
minimal package sizes, specify the blob(s) as external URLs rather than
encoding them.
I don't like the multiple file thing at all. The metadata is there to
glue the files together.
> Example 2: package with optional development and documentation components
>
> $ ls /var/spool/pkg/bar-m.n
> base.bz2 devel.bz2 doc.bz2 package.xml
>
> (In an archive, of course, package.xml would be the first member.)
Or better yet, wrapped around the others.
Come to think if it, it would be a simple transformation to "convert" a
package from external references to a full binary, with something like
a pkg_fetch command. It would read a package with external URLs for
the filesets, fetch them, and re-write the package with the blobs
encased. That would let you sleep overnight, then install in the next
morning/evening when you have the full package and won't be killed by
an interrupted download.
--
"Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"
Wes Peters Softweyr LLC
wes@softweyr.com http://softweyr.com/
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