I'm considering applying the attached to only distribute xz tarballs.
We didn't release .tar.gz sources since coreutils-8.14 (2011), but then re-enabled .tar.gz since coreutils-8.32 (2020). That was to support Guix bootstrapping 100% from sources: https://lists.gnu.org/r/coreutils/2020-02/msg00042.html Since then I understand Guix' bootar got xz support. Also I noticed in all the plethora of (older) systems I tested coreutils 9.8 on, that xz was supported on them all. Also it's another 5 years down the line. cheers, Padraig p.s. I did a quick test with zstd (supported since automake 1.16.2 (2020)), but the file size was about the same (a little bigger), so I don't think we get enough benefits from enabling that.
From c10662af3ef56f5d04b08cd1cef6b566979e5e58 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: =?UTF-8?q?P=C3=A1draig=20Brady?= <[email protected]> Date: Sat, 27 Sep 2025 16:16:52 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] build: no longer distribute gzipped sources * README-prereq: Remove gzip. * bootstrap.conf (buildreq): Likewise. * configure.ac (AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE): Disable gz. * NEWS: Mention the change. --- NEWS | 4 ++++ README-prereq | 1 - bootstrap.conf | 1 - configure.ac | 3 ++- 4 files changed, 6 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS index dc1d26879..b3c55d0ef 100644 --- a/NEWS +++ b/NEWS @@ -11,6 +11,10 @@ GNU coreutils NEWS -*- outline -*- Previously it may have output too few lines. [bug introduced in coreutils-9.8] +** Build-related + + gzip-compressed tarballs are no longer distributed + * Noteworthy changes in release 9.8 (2025-09-22) [stable] diff --git a/README-prereq b/README-prereq index 9ae4b12af..91c61d373 100644 --- a/README-prereq +++ b/README-prereq @@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ as well as by 'make'. They include: - Gettext <https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/> - Git <https://git-scm.com/> - Gperf <https://www.gnu.org/software/gperf/> -- Gzip <https://www.gnu.org/software/gzip/> - Help2man <https://www.gnu.org/software/help2man/> - M4 <https://www.gnu.org/software/m4/> - Make <https://www.gnu.org/software/make/> diff --git a/bootstrap.conf b/bootstrap.conf index adf09910d..7c6241fee 100644 --- a/bootstrap.conf +++ b/bootstrap.conf @@ -368,7 +368,6 @@ bison - gettext 0.19.2 git 1.5.5 gperf - -gzip - m4 - makeinfo 6.1 texi2pdf 6.1 diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac index 274eff42f..477903670 100644 --- a/configure.ac +++ b/configure.ac @@ -35,7 +35,8 @@ AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([src/ls.c]) AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([build-aux]) AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([lib/config.h:lib/config.hin]) -AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([1.11.2 dist-xz color-tests parallel-tests subdir-objects]) +AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([1.11.2 no-dist-gzip dist-xz color-tests parallel-tests + subdir-objects]) AM_SILENT_RULES([yes]) # make --enable-silent-rules the default. dnl POSIXCHECK is worthwhile for maintainers, but adds several seconds -- 2.51.0
