Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2000 17:45:57 -0800 (PST) From: Doug Barton <Doug@gorean.org> To: Satoshi - Ports Wraith - Asami <asami@FreeBSD.org> Cc: Will Andrews <andrews@technologist.com>, FreeBSD Ports <ports@FreeBSD.org> Subject: Re: multi-level categories Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0002141728520.2582-100000@dt051n0b.san.rr.com> In-Reply-To: <vqcitzshzr9.fsf@silvia.hip.berkeley.edu>
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On 14 Feb 2000, Satoshi - Ports Wraith - Asami wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Sorry for not responding to this for a while....
>
> Anyway, here are some stats from today's ports tree. No distfiles,
> packages or work directories of course.
[stats snipped]
> The difference between 2 and 3 should be block fragmentation.
> (Filesystem and tar format experts, is that correct?) If that is
> true, having a lot of small files isn't hurting *that* much in terms
> of total space required.
On average you waste 1/2 of a block for every file on the
system. You can calculate space savings by multiplying
Num files deleted * (blocksize / 2) = savings
When you are talking about such a large number of ports, the more
files/directories we can delte the better. Savings multiply again when you
start discussing scalability...
> And here's my proposal, slightly revised.
>
> editors/emacs/Makefile
> .../checksum (<- files/md5)
> .../files/emacs.sh
> .../patches/patch-aa
> .../patches/patch-ab
> .../patches/patch-ac
> .../patches/patch-ad
> .../pkgCOMMENT \
> .../pkgDESCR \ these stuff moved
> .../pkgPLIST / from ${PKGDIR}
> .../pkgREQ /
> .../scripts/pre-configure
>
> Basically it amounts to moving everything in pkg/ out to the main dir
> by appending the prefix "pkg" in the filenames instead,
Why would we need the pkg prefix? The filenames are discrete, and
not prone to confusion.
> and moving
> "files/md5" to "checksum" in the main directory.
> Of the 11,257 directories (5), this will get rid of 3,081 pkg/ dirs
> (6) and 2,325 files/ dirs (8) for a revised total of 5,851, or a 48%
> reduction in directory count. The reduction of 5,406 directories also
> means 5,406 CVS directories and 16,218 CVS files (3 files per dir)
> will disappear, so there will be 40,820 files in the checked out ports
> tree for a 28% reduction.
>
> In total, the number of files and directories, which is at 79552 ((5)
> x 2 + (b)) currently will be reduced by 21,624 (5,406 + 16,218), or a
> 27% reduction in inode count.
>
> I don't want to move patches out to the main directory, some ports
> have an enormous number of patches and the toplevel will look too
> cluttered.
Agreed.
> I am ambivalent about moving patches into files. Since
> most files/ directories will be gone with md5 moving out anyway (there
> will only be 509 files/ dirs after md5 moves out), there aren't much
> savings to be made there. Also, there are some ports that put "extra"
> patches in files/ for special treatment, which could create some
> confusion.
I also agree that "patches" should be its own directory, in part
for the reasons you mention here.
> I'd like to keep scripts/ as it is. It is perfectly legal to put a
> file called "configure" in files/ now, and it will violate POLA to
> change the meaning. Also, only less than 10% of ports have scripts/
> dirs anyway.
Hrrmm..... I can't help thinking that we are leaving too many
exceptions behind, especially when you're talking about so few
exceptions. It's directories that give us the really big space savings,
and the more of them we can reduce the better. How many ports currently
use the scripts directory for a purpose that couldn't be folded into one
directory for "extra" things called files?
My final comment is that we would be wise to look at what
open/netBSD are doing in this area before making any final decisions. I
know that there are some who are already working on porting some of their
cool stuff to FreeBSD, so it would be foolish to introduce gratuitous
differences if they don't gain us much.
Doug
--
"Welcome to the desert of the real."
- Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus, "The Matrix"
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