On Thu, Oct 27, 2016 at 08:41:12AM -0200, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh wrote:
>...
> That said, Thaddeus, if you do go ahead with the upload please check if
> you can minimize that size somehow, even just a 10% drop in size would
> already be worth the work it took for something big like this.
>...
I do disagree with that.
10% of 400 MB [1] would be 40 MB.
Every version of flightgear-data-base uses 2.5 GB in the archive,[1]
so what would be the point of a maintainer trying hard to make his
package use 40 MB less space?
If archive size is a problem, then telling one person to spend work on
trying to save 40 MB in one package is not an effective way to solve the
problem.
If archive size is not a problem, then there's no point in one person
spending work and reducing the usefulness of a package for saving 40 MB.
> For example, suppose it ships the recommendations in several rendered
> formats (PDF, PS, HTML/XHTML) and master hypertext (XML DOCBOOK,
> whatever).
And this would be an approach that has a negative effect for users while
only providing small benefits.
Any good solution is about compression.
Binary package in the archive:
35069348 bytes
Package in the archive recompiled in unstable (with dpkg using xz):
23867182 bytes
xz compression level 9 instead of the default 6:
20930302 bytes
So just rebuilding the package in unstable reduces the size by 32%.
Which already reduces the factor 6 increase in the contents to
a factor 4 increase of the actual binary package.
And using compression level 9 instead of 6 gives an additional 12%.
If archive size is something you are worried about, then the one place
that matters most is the default compression level in dpkg.
Similar for the source package:
Reducing the contents by 10% would bring a 10% size decrease.
Compressing the .orig.tar of the old version with "xz -9" instead
of gzip gives me a similar 42% size decrease.
Changing the build-orig target in debian/rules is a simple change
without any impact for users, that gives much more than a 10%
reduction you were already considering worth additional work.
> Henrique Holschuh
cu
Adrian
[1] binary and source package
--
"Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
"Only a promise," Lao Er said.
Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed
