Compressing packages with bzip2 instead gzip?

[Kevin Cole]

Abel Cheung wrote:
> On 12/7/05, MadMan2k <madman2k at gmx.de> wrote:
> 
> > why not move directly to 7-zip? It is LGPL and has the best 
> > compression ratio at the moment.
> 
> Not long time ago, there has been discussion in Mandriva devel
> list about various compressions to be used in package. They
> have been using bzip2 for long time. Though _on average_ it
> stores 20-30% more data than gzip, the penalty is huge:
> compression and decompression is slower for a magnitude
> (especially compression). When talking about balance between
> time and compression ratio, 7zip is so far the best according
> to some benchmark.

I have no strong feelings (or knowledge) about the issue one way
or the other, but let me inquire:

You say "especially compression".  Unless I misunderstood, the thought
was to use it for shipping.  So that would mitigate some, (not all) of
the concern regarding the slowness, yes?  The heavy penalty would be
paid at the distribution end (relatively few times), not at the receipt
end (relatively many times).

You also mentioned compatibility with older distros.  I'm going to
display my ignorance here and ask "How is that a factor for shipping?"

If stuff is shipped compressed, and decompression takes place during
the install, compatibility wouldn't be an issue would it?

Or are people talking about installing the files as compressed, and
letting software decompress it each time it is needed?  In that case
I can see a problem, though it seems like a small one, compared to
the gain.

Thanks for any clarification.

-- 
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