Date: Mon, 06 Apr 1998 12:18:03 +1000 (EST) From: Peter Jeremy <Peter.Jeremy@alcatel.com.au> To: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: bzip2 - is it worth to take a look at? Message-ID: <199804060218.MAA13400@gsms01.alcatel.com.au>
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On Sun, 5 Apr 1998 11:32:07 +0200 (MEST), Christoph Kukulies <kuku@gilberto.physik.RWTH-Aachen.DE> wrote: >A new compression tool - bzip2 - is gaining popularity I've only seen a single other reference to it, although that reference suggested it was also being used for distributing Linux add-ons. >bzip2 compresses about 20 % better than gzip. I did a few tests of my own with bzip2 on FreeBSD executables and found a 5-10% saving over gzip (YMMV). The big killer was the speed - I found that bzip2 was somewhat slower than gzip -9 to compress, and around an order of magnitude slower to decompress (this was running on a superSPARC-II processor - I don't know how processor-sensitive the code is and can't quickly check on a FreeBSD machine). In the specific case of the installation floppy itself, where size is the critical factor and speed is relatively unimportant (unless you have a 386, like one of my machines), bzip2 may be useful. I would not like to see bzip2 used in place of gzip for the CD-ROM installation archives. Peter -- Peter Jeremy (VK2PJ) peter.jeremy@alcatel.com.au Alcatel Australia Limited 41 Mandible St Phone: +61 2 9690 5019 ALEXANDRIA NSW 2015 Fax: +61 2 9690 5247 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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