Joe Desbonnet wrote:
I'm currenly focusing on improving the download time for clients over
limited bandwidth connections... so perhaps there is a bigger picture
which I'm ignoring (eg mirror updates).
rdiff is more than mirror fodder, produces a file on the client that is sent to
server, which can then produce a delta that is sent back to the client. The
uploaded file and the downloaded delta are way smaller than the original
file, and the advantage is that the delta can be generated without both packages
resident on the same machine.
I would propose that a tool build the delta repository. No need for
humans to get involved in that activity.
Humans are always involved, and deltas are gonna add a large number of files that need to be produced, tested, maintained, and otherwise handled.
I would also propose that only deltas against the RPMs in the original
distribution are produced.
Sure you can make up rules that simplify the problem. Not gonna work in practice,
there is too much diversity for "original distribution" to satisfy a majority of users imho.
73 de Jeff
