Re: [opensuse-factory] Proposal on metadata fetching

2006-11-14 Thread Rajko M
On Tuesday 14 November 2006 07:46, Andreas Hanke wrote:
> Marcel Hilzinger schrieb:
> > The big difference between Suse and Debian/Ubuntu is, that under Suse
> > much more data get's fetched. So you can also search within
> > package-descriptions etc, whereas under Ubuntu you have only
> > package-names and files, but no description e.g. For a more detailed
> > search you need apt-file. I think apt-file is compearable to the actual
> > suse solution.
>
> As a starting point, the YaST2 metadata could be compressed. Debian does
> that since ever, but YaST2 metadata were never compressed.
>
> The "packages" file in Factory is currently at 16 MB, a good bzip2
> compression reduces it to 1.8 MB - almost 90% gone.
>
> I think that this should really be considered first because it is
> possible entirely without functionality loss and without complicating
> the architecture too much.
>
...

Besides compression of metadata, the idea of central server that will contain 
all details of repositories is appealing because that will substantially 
simplify package management from user prospective. One preconfigured server 
to query for detailed information. 

The problem is, who will host such server, if even link to some repositories 
can be source of legal trouble.   

-- 
Regards,
Rajko M.
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[opensuse-factory] Proposal on metadata fetching

2006-11-14 Thread Marcel Hilzinger
Beta2 is much better than 10.1 concerning the speed of the package manager. 
But as mentioned by other users already it's still far behind debian 
concerning the speed of fetching metadata. Adding factory as an installation 
source takes at least 15 minutes with an average DSL connection.

The big difference between Suse and Debian/Ubuntu is, that under Suse much 
more data get's fetched. So you can also search within package-descriptions 
etc, whereas under Ubuntu you have only package-names and files, but no 
description e.g. For a more detailed search you need apt-file. I think 
apt-file is compearable to the actual suse solution.

My proposal (for 10.3 etc):

Reduce downloaded metadata to package-names and RPM-content. Do not fetch 
descriptions, etc. Most users know the name of the file/RMP they want to 
install. An error tolerant search can help finding the right package.

For a detailed search do not download metadata but query a server. E.g if im 
looking for the string "foobar" and content cannot be found in the local 
metadatafile, Suse should not download further metadata, but contact an 
official server, which does the search.

I do not know, what kind of server we need, if 10 or 100 thousends of clients 
will start search queries, but I think this may be faster, than fetching so 
much metadata all the time. I also do not know how many data must be uploaded 
in order to get this system working, so maybe it's a very bad idea and not 
realizeable, but perhaps there is a chance.
-- 
Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Marcel Hilzinger

Linux New Media AG
Süskindstr. 4
D-81929 München
Tel: +49 (89) 99 34 11 0
Fax: +49 (89) 99 34 11 99
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Re: [opensuse-factory] Proposal on metadata fetching

2006-11-14 Thread Andreas Hanke
Marcel Hilzinger schrieb:
> The big difference between Suse and Debian/Ubuntu is, that under Suse much 
> more data get's fetched. So you can also search within package-descriptions 
> etc, whereas under Ubuntu you have only package-names and files, but no 
> description e.g. For a more detailed search you need apt-file. I think 
> apt-file is compearable to the actual suse solution.

As a starting point, the YaST2 metadata could be compressed. Debian does
that since ever, but YaST2 metadata were never compressed.

The "packages" file in Factory is currently at 16 MB, a good bzip2
compression reduces it to 1.8 MB - almost 90% gone.

I think that this should really be considered first because it is
possible entirely without functionality loss and without complicating
the architecture too much.

The thing with the patterns for unneeded architectures is more a
cosmetic thing because the pattern files are very small. But many users
notice it because YaST displays the filenames of the downloaded metadata.

For YUM metadata, there is not much to do because they are already
compressed and it's a "standardized" format - it can be extended, but
not changed in incompatible ways.

Andreas
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Re: [opensuse-factory] Proposal on metadata fetching

2006-11-14 Thread Dominique Leuenberger


 >>> Reply on 14-11-2006 15:34:53 
> > For a detailed search do not download metadata but query a server. E.g> if im > looking for the string "foobar" and content cannot be found in the local> > metadatafile, Suse should not download further metadata, but contact an> > official server, which does the search.> > I do not know, what kind of server we need, if 10 or 100 thousends of> clients > will start search queries, but I think this may be faster, than fetching> so > much metadata all the time. I also do not know how many data must be> uploaded > in order to get this system working, so maybe it's a very bad idea and> not > realizeable, but perhaps there is a chance.
Marcel,
 
The idea of only having the RPM names / Summary is not bad IMHO. (maybe having an option for the user to decide HOW he would like to add the repo?)
 
The thing with the search engine sounds fascinating, but I don't think it's possible to realize: just think about all the repos that exist out there. How could they possibly EVER be included in a search? And in plus, the server you query should know in which repos to have a look, as obviously it should only offer packages from repos, you're subscribed to.
 
Dominique