Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2000 22:45:12 -0500 (EST) From: Chuck Robey <chuckr@picnic.mat.net> To: "David O'Brien" <obrien@FreeBSD.ORG> Cc: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: bzip2 in src tree (Was Re: ports/16252: bsd.port.mk: Add bzip2 support for distribution patches) Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0001232236280.315-100000@picnic.mat.net> In-Reply-To: <20000123193232.A44712@dragon.nuxi.com>
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On Sun, 23 Jan 2000, David O'Brien wrote: > On Sun, Jan 23, 2000 at 10:26:48AM +0100, Oliver Fromme wrote: > > > > Saving 10% or 20% on disk space is not worth wasting >= 10 times more > > CPU time than gzip. Disk space is cheap nowadays, but upgrading to a > > CPU that is 10 times faster is not. > > And just how do I increase the space on a CDROM??? > Go look how many port distribution files on your last CDROM set were in > bzip2 format -- there is a reason for that. David, no one is arguing if bzip2 is or is not a good tool, nor are they arguing if it's good for ports. The answer to both those arguments is very obviously "yes". The argument was whether, currently, bzip2 should be placed in the source tree for the base system. We *don't* need two compressors, and (again currently) gzip is overwhelmingly more popular at ftp sites than bzip2. Furthermore bzip2 has drawbacks for running on the core system, most especially for small ones. I don't need to go over those, you already know them. Lifting those restrictions is not necessary for the base system, seeing as it would have fatal drawbacks for small systems which would see no help from bzip2 (small systems don't have ports). It is a very good thing to have bzip2 on your system, but it's *not* a requirement. Like I said before, most of the same arguments apply to, say, emacs. You'd have to be nuts (if you ran a good sized system) not to have bzip2, but it's just not a requirement. Having a compressor at all is the requirement, and gzip currently is better for that. Ask me again in 18 months, maybe bzip2 will use less memory and be faster, and it's quite likely that it will be far more popular at ftp sites. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chuck Robey | Interests include C & Java programming, FreeBSD, chuckr@picnic.mat.net | electronics, communications, and signal processing. New Year's Resolution: I will not sphroxify gullible people into looking up fictitious words in the dictionary. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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