From owner-freebsd-arch Sun Jul 7 8:35: 4 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.FreeBSD.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4874437B400 for ; Sun, 7 Jul 2002 08:35:02 -0700 (PDT) Received: from scoobysnax.jaded.net (d141-7-230.home.cgocable.net [24.141.7.230]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A9D7C43E09 for ; Sun, 7 Jul 2002 08:35:01 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dan@scoobysnax.jaded.net) Received: from scoobysnax.jaded.net (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by scoobysnax.jaded.net (8.12.3/8.12.3) with ESMTP id g67FZ2ow001110; Sun, 7 Jul 2002 11:35:02 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from dan@scoobysnax.jaded.net) Received: (from dan@localhost) by scoobysnax.jaded.net (8.12.3/8.12.3/Submit) id g67FYvg0001106; Sun, 7 Jul 2002 11:34:57 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 7 Jul 2002 11:34:57 -0400 From: Dan Moschuk To: Dag-Erling Smorgrav Cc: Wes Peters , arch@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Package system flaws? Message-ID: <20020707153457.GA1086@scoobysnax.jaded.net> References: <20020706220511.GA88651@scoobysnax.jaded.net> <3D27A296.D58FB4B4@softweyr.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.4i Sender: owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG | > Dan Moschuk wrote: | > > Where can we improve? | > In all of the above areas, plus all the ones we haven't addressed yet. | | *grin* | | One thing we could improve a lot is the package file format. We | currently use gzipped tarballs, which have to be completely unpacked | before processing can begin. One improvement we can make is to use an | archive format such as zip that allows us to extract individual files | quickly, so we can extract the metadata and check dependencies | etc. without unpacking the entire package. This would save both time | and space (the current system can fail if the temp directory doesn't | have room for the unpacked package, even if the installation directory | has room to spare). A further improvement is to use a custom archive | format that always stores the metadata at the beginning of the archive | so we can install packages from the net without having to download and | store them locally first (zip isn't suitable for this as it stores the | content directory at the end of the archive, and the files within the | archive can appear in any order). I don't think using an archive format like zip would be a step in the right direction. If the package file format were to be redesigned, I would vote for a custom header prepended to a bziped tarball. Cheers, -Dan To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-arch" in the body of the message