Hi, I feel somewhat uneasy about making somehings as central as dpkg "less foolproof", no matter how pathological the lessening of foolproofness maybe. Experience has taught ne that there are more fools than one imagines.
I would not object to having the control files skipped by an explicit option, though, for the speedup (we can't do it by default, since the dos directory contains filenames that are truncated; and all the filenames *still* may match the pattern name_version*.deb). Also, it has been promised in the past that one may rename the package file to anything one wants and dpkg shall stil do the right thing. I like that, and I don't think we should drop that just for speed (optomize for the most common case: I run a 133Mhz machine [which seems to be fast becoming slower than the norm], and full a hamm mirror, in my opinion the time taken is not so much as to justify the reduction in functionality) manoj -- "I can do a score of things that can't be done. I can find a thing I cannot see, and see a thing I cannot find. The first is time, and the second is spots before my eyes. I can touch a thing I cannot feel, and feel a thing I cannot touch. The first is your heart, and the second is sad and sorry." James Thurber, "The Thirteen Clocks" Manoj Srivastava <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <http://www.datasync.com/%7Esrivasta/> Key C7261095 fingerprint = CB D9 F4 12 68 07 E4 05 CC 2D 27 12 1D F5 E8 6E -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .