Modern Update System

[Matt Wilson]

On Mon, Nov 28, 2005 at 04:46:39PM -0800, Jesse Keating wrote:
> 
> Thats 4 different deltas that would have to be available.  We're
> talking about a huge amount of wasted space.

The huge amount of wasted space comes in having to store tons of RPM
files that have duplicated contents.  A conary[1] repository avoids
this, as each unique file is stored only once in a repository.  Each
changeset request is processed dynamically by the repository server.
The result of the changeset request is cached with the file contents
omitted.  The files are filled in when the client downloads the
changeset.

Of course this means that mirrors have to run a repository server
instead of a simple http/ftp/rsync mirror.  Some mirror sites will be
unwilling to host an application.  Some will value the disk space and
data transfer savings that changeset-based updates can provide.

But there's very little chance that Fedora or Red Hat will move away
from RPM, so this information is fairly irrelevant.

[1] http://wiki.conary.com/

Cheers,

Matt
-- 
Matt Wilson
rPath, Inc.
msw at rpath.com