Fedora Updates: whole packages vs patches

[Schlaegel]

Aleksandar Milivojevic wrote:

> I guess anybody on dialup would vote for Solaris-style patches 
> approach any day (although those can get just as big as original 
> packages).  Most people with high speed connections would probably opt 
> for simplicity of the way it is currently done.

I agree, when I am at home (rural) I can not get a broadband connection, 
so SUSE-style patches would be nice.

> How about this idea, that would be something like in the middle. 
> Implementing a tool that could replace changed files inside binary 
> RPM, producing new RPM (with bumped version) as output.  That way you 
> can either download a patch, or new RPM.  If you download the patch, 
> you generate new RPM by applying the patch against original 
> distribution RPM.  The only difference from downloaded updated package 
> would be missing signature.  This isn't a big deal because there were 
> signatures on both the patch and the original RPM, and user can sign 
> resulting RPM with his own PGP key.  The rest of the patching process 
> is the same as now (install updated RPM, either downloaded one, or the 
> one generated using the patch).

I like this idea. No changes necessary to rpm. Though probably some 
added rules to yum and up2date.