Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2005 10:10:33 +0200 From: Ulrich Spoerlein <q@galgenberg.net> To: current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: using bzip2 to compress man-pages Message-ID: <20050923081033.GB1117@galgenberg.net> In-Reply-To: <54db439905092215152a197bf9@mail.gmail.com> References: <200509220446.j8M4kBPA019823@blue.virtual-estates.net> <20050922182104.GC990@galgenberg.net> <54db439905092215152a197bf9@mail.gmail.com>
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--1UWUbFP1cBYEclgG Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Thu, 22.09.2005 at 18:15:17 -0400, Bob Johnson wrote: > > Changing the default format for manpages has serious bikeshed potential. > > While adding support for reading/writing bz2 compressed manpages is > > certainly useful, I doubt the benefit of switching to bzip2 compressed > > manpages. > > > > There are several points to consider: > > > > 1. I dont want to wait for my manpages to display, they have to be on > > screen instantanously. >=20 > You are already waiting. FreeBSD by default uses gzip-compressed man > pages. The issue is whether to continue using gzip, or switch to > bzip2. Yes, I know. But bzip2 is almost always slower than gzip, especially on lower end hardware. Increasing the time for decompression is not the way to go IMHO. If you ever tried to read manpages on systems with a load of 20-30 you know what I'm talking about. Now, I know to that there's more to manpages than just compression, so ideally manpages would be simple text-files, but this would lose the markup :( Anyway, I'm not arguing, I'm not in charge. I'm sure I wouldn't notice the speed difference on my current hardware anyway. But the size savings are marginal too. Consider this: % du -sh /usr/share/man /usr/local/man /usr/X11R6/man 10M /usr/share/man 16M /usr/local/man 5.5M /usr/X11R6/man And this is with 647 ports installed. Even if you could cut the size in half, it would me a mere 15MB, there are better places to look for more space :) Ulrich Spoerlein --=20 PGP Key ID: F0DB9F44 Encrypted mail welcome! Fingerprint: F1CE D062 0CA9 ADE3 349B 2FE8 980A C6B5 F0DB 9F44 Ok, which part of "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn." didn't you understand? --1UWUbFP1cBYEclgG Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQFDM7h5mArGtfDbn0QRAu/NAKCehYT1FxxI9xBdjC7jcx+EwiEmQgCgixHu V6L4meyJGl+Xko+mASRmVbk= =nlbG -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --1UWUbFP1cBYEclgG--
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