For the record,
This is to publish my coping strategies for this feature being missing from
dpkg.
This is what I've been doing in debootstrap,
to purge packages unavoidably installed BEFORE localepurge, but
still benefit from path-exclude (MUCH faster) for packages installs AFTER
localpurge:
debootstrap --variant=minbase ... $t
...
chroot $t apt-get install locales localepurge
chroot $t sed -i /etc/locale.nopurge -e 's/^USE_DPKG/#ARGH#&/'
chroot $t localepurge
chroot $t sed -i /etc/locale.nopurge -e 's/^#ARGH#//'
chroot $t apt-get install <everything else>
This is more annoying in mmdebstrap, which
for speed reasons tries to do only 2 rounds of apt-get
(one for apt, one for everything else).
<run --setup-hooks>
<install apt & Essential: yes packages, like deboostrap>
<run --essential-hooks>
<install everything else>
<run --customize-hooks>
This shows & measures some strategies for "doing" localepurge for what is
approximately Debian Live XFCE:
ROW SIZE REAL USER SYS COMMAND
1 282M 2m41s 9m07s 0m13s ./tmp.sh # baseline, no localepurge
2 290M 2m49s 9m32s 0m14s ./tmp.sh --include=localepurge
3 290M 2m50s 9m32s 0m13s ./tmp.sh --include=localepurge
--essential-hook='echo localepurge localepurge/use-dpkg-feature boolean false |
chroot $1 debconf-set-selections'
4 266M 2m38s 8m57s 0m13s ./tmp.sh --include=localepurge
--essential-hook='echo localepurge localepurge/use-dpkg-feature boolean false |
chroot $1 debconf-set-selections' --customize-hook='chroot $1 localepurge'
5 275M 2m40s 9m12s 0m13s ./tmp.sh --essential-hook='chroot $1 apt-get
install -y localepurge'
6 265M 2m35s 8m52s 0m12s ./tmp.sh --essential-hook='chroot $1 apt-get
install -y localepurge&&chroot $1 sed -i /etc/locale.nopurge -e
"s/^USE_DPKG/#ARGH#&/"&&chroot $1 localepurge&&chroot $1 sed -i
/etc/locale.nopurge -e "s/^#ARGH#//"'
7 267M 2m34s 8m44s 0m12s ./tmp.sh --setup-hook='mkdir -p
$1/etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d' --setup-hook='copy-in
/etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/50localepurge /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d'
==== =====
6% 4% SAVINGS FROM LOCALEPURGE
==== =====
>From past experience, when localepurge is working correctly,
the image should build 8%-12% faster AND be 8%-12% smaller.
You can see that the intuitive approach (2) doesn't work at all.
Oddly, nor does simply telling localepurge to use its pre-path-exclude code. (3)
Manually firing localepurge afterwards mostly works. (4)
We get the best results by fully preserving the original debootstrap workaround
(6),
i.e. an entire separate apt-get process, just for localepurge & its
dependencies,
AND doing a manual localepurge, then allowing <everything else> packages to
install using path-excludes.
Finally, we can "cheat" by inserting a localepurge generated ahead of time on
another system. (7)
This works well but assumes the build system and built system have identical
locales configuration.
PS: I can't explain why the "working" cases (4,6,7) have varying sizes
(265/266/267M).
APPENDIX: tmp.sh
================
#!/bin/bash
# NOTE: aptopt/dpkgopt are optional "go faster" racing stripes.
# NOTE: Without --variant=apt, "chroot $1 apt-get" is failing for reasons I
don't understand.
time mmdebstrap bullseye delete-me.squashfs \
--variant=apt \
--logfile=delete-me.log \
--include=linux-image-generic,live-boot,live-config,task-xfce-desktop \
--include=locales \
--essential-hook='echo locales locales/default_environment_locale select
en_AU.UTF-8 | chroot $1 debconf-set-selections' \
--essential-hook='echo locales locales/locales_to_be_generated multiselect
en_AU.UTF-8 UTF-8 | chroot $1 debconf-set-selections' \
--aptopt='Acquire::http::Proxy "http://odin:3142";' \
--dpkgopt=force-unsafe-io \
"$@" &&
du -shx delete-me.squashfs
