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Date:      Thu, 04 Apr 2002 09:36:57 -0500 (EST)
From:      John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org>
To:        Mikhail Teterin <mi@aldan.algebra.com>
Cc:        imp@village.org, des@ofug.org, pst@pst.org, obrien@FreeBSD.org, cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org, cvs-all@FreeBSD.org, winter@jurai.net, jkh@winston.freebsd.org, rwatson@FreeBSD.org, anarcat@anarcat.dyndns.org
Subject:   Re: cvs commit: src/usr.sbin/sysinstall install.c installUpgrade
Message-ID:  <XFMail.20020404093657.jhb@FreeBSD.org>
In-Reply-To: <200204040851.g348p0nF004035@aldan.algebra.com>

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On 04-Apr-2002 Mikhail Teterin wrote:
> On  4 Apr, The Anarcat wrote:
>> Choosing a archive format has serious implications on the way the
>> package system is designed since a tabled (eg zip) vs scattered (eg
>> tar) format has serious implications on the design of the pkg tools
>> suite.
> 
> Agreed.

I think a better comparison might be if you think about some of our current
ports.  We have things like vim and vim-lite.  Imagine having a single vim
package (so you don't have to duplicate all the share data) whose install
script installs either the big vim binary or the smaller binary (both binaries
are in the package, hence a "fat" package as I mentioned earlier) depending on
if the system has X installed, user preference, etc.  Since we would only need
1 copy of stuff that is now duplicated, we could actually end up with a net
space gain as well as solving the problem of how to handle having 10 versions
of a package for all the various WITH/WITHOUT combinations.

>> For the record, I'm in favor of the .zip format. I think that with
>> proper design of the package system, packages can be broken up in
>> subpackages (doc, bin, non-mandatory shlibs, devel headers, etc). I
>> think Debian has followed this technique and I find it quite a good
>> idea. Not everyone needs headers files deployed by some packages, for
>> example. By breaking up packages this way, we can probably resolve the
>> space constraints issues.
> 
> I don't see the relation -- whatever way we slice it, it will still be
> bigger than it has to be if it uses .zip format instead of .tar.bz2

That's because you aren't thinking in a big enough picture.  Please calm down
and realize that many people have been thinking about this for a long time.

> A package is, typicly, downloaded or found on a CD -- in both cases the
> file can be seeked around. IMHO, in this case space should be given
> priority in the eternal "time vs. space" argument.

In the case of a fat package you wouldn't actually download the parts of the
package you didn't need if you got the package via a bitstream that you could
seek on.

> And I suspect, those who disagree are simply blinded by their blazingly
> fast connections and fat disks. :-)

No, the fact is that we have thought about some of the problems the current
scheme doesn't address and which you haven't apparently thought about how to
address either.

-- 

John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org>  <><  http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/
"Power Users Use the Power to Serve!"  -  http://www.FreeBSD.org/

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