Now that the dust around the major changes in dpkg has settled a bit, I hope that you can find time to take another look at this issue.
The blocking issue for us (D-I team) at this point for switching from
XC-Package-Type: udeb to Package-Type: udeb is that it increases the size of
the control file.
Just as an indication of how serious we take the memory usage of the
installer, I can give you this example. For Etch the installer required a
minimum of 72 MB to complete an installation with all translations enabled
and 32 MB for a bare minimum install on i386. For Lenny we have implemented
various changes to reduce memory usage and this has been reduced to 42 MB
(probably even less now, but that needs testing) and 28 MB, despite the
fact that we've also increased the total functionality of the installer and
that the kernel and libraries in general have increased in size.
Sure, we can gain memory in other places too (and we have in the mean time
reduced the long descriptions of some udebs), but we do absolutely try to
avoid increasing memory use when not needed and we would appreciate if you
took our concerns with regard to that seriously.
I have just taken another look at the issue and below is a patch that could
possibly solve the issue. It suppresses the inclusion of Package-Type for
the control file, just as was already done for Homepage.
I'm not sure if that is an acceptable solution, or that this will interfere
with dh_builddeb (or rather dpkg-deb) later. AFAICT it does not, but please
check.
Note that we still consider this a serious regression and that if this mail
does not result in a resolution, or at least an acknowledgement of our
concerns and serious effort towards a resolution, I intend to escalate the
issue to the Technical Committee.
Cheers,
FJP
$ diff -u /usr/bin/dpkg-gencontrol dpkg-gencontrol
--- /usr/bin/dpkg-gencontrol 2008-04-12 14:52:05.000000000 +0200
+++ dpkg-gencontrol 2008-04-12 14:51:59.000000000 +0200
@@ -269,6 +269,7 @@
if ($package_type eq 'udeb') {
delete $fields->{'Homepage'};
+ delete $fields->{'Package-Type'};
} else {
for my $f (qw(Subarchitecture Kernel-Version Installer-Menu-Item)) {
warning(_g("%s package with udeb specific field %s"), $package_type,
$f)
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