[Bug 902548] Re: apt: add option to compress files in /var/lib/apt/lists

[SIDDHARTH]

Though this is not a bug,i like this idea as it could save some
diskspace. I once had 700 mb of database cache as I never knew that with
every update i.e "sudo apt update",the database would get updated and
sync and just dump the new one.Never ever the old and not needed would
still exist as memory hog. Though now days I clean the cache aka "sudo
apt clean" every week.

The process could be like apt first gets the new update,then as soon as
it reaches 99% it compress the copy in a file named apt_[date:time].zip.
Then it would perform any additional task if required. When every thing
is over it would remove the uncompressed files(flat file).

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/902548

Title:
  apt: add option to compress files in /var/lib/apt/lists

Status in apt package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid

Bug description:
  Hi,

  This is a suggestion for the apt package management system.

  The files in /var/lib/apt/lists seem to be uncompressed text files. On
  my system they occupy over 110MB of disk space.

  Would it be possible to automatically compress those files as they are
  downloaded? That could reduce disk space used by about 80%. That's
  particularly important when disk space is scarce, e.g. if you have
  installed Lubuntu to a USB flash drive, or are using a netbook with
  4GB SSD. Plus reducing the amount of data written helps to extend the
  life of SSDs and flash drives.

  (If the list files are downloaded via HTTP, the web server might be
  compressing them using gzip/deflate type compression. In which case,
  apt could save the received compressed data as-is, instead of
  decompressing and recompressing it.)

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