*- On 16 Sep, Jordan Mendelson wrote about "Binary Deb 'Diffs'" > > Just a quick idea, instead of having to download an entire package where 95% > of the files don't change, what about downloading a type of binary diff? I can > think of two ways to do it: > > 1) Package everything in a type of 'pdeb' (patch deb). It should contain > reconfiguration information, and files which have changed since version > locally installed > > 2) Package everything in a 'pdeb' w/ real binary diff. Instead of packaging > entire files which have changed, package patches. This would require a system > which logged changes in order to work correctly, similar to CVS. > > Both of these would need to include a checksum per file. Optimally it would > require that the storage of deb's on HTTP and FTP servers change as well, > requiring the files to be unpacked so apt can grab a single file from a .deb. > > Then again, if it was done this way you could install partial packages, it's > not like anyone uses every single executable which comes with the X packages.. > > I don't know, I figured it might be a way to save bandwidth & disk space. >
This was discussed in Oct '98 on this list. See the thread start at http://www.debian.org/Lists-Archives/debian-devel-9811/threads.html#00988. There was also some alpha code created for this process but it doesn't look like there has been any activity since Dec '98. See http://www.stud.tu-muenchen.de/~kai.duebbert for more info on the software. -- Brian --------------------------------------------------------------------- Mechanical Engineering [EMAIL PROTECTED] Purdue University http://www.ecn.purdue.edu/~servis ---------------------------------------------------------------------