Binary diffs for deb files

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Tue, May 02, 2006 at 02:50:12AM +0100, James Hall wrote:
> I've often wondered why it is necessary to download a whole package
> again when there is often only a small change needed. I'd like to see
> some sort of patching system. I've written two proof-of-concept scripts
> available at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DiffDebScript

This comes up a lot; I believe there is already a document in the wiki or
blueprint somewhere for this, as well as for delta updates of the package
indexes.

One of the problems with your approach is that it will result in a deb with
a different checksum, which means that it can't be authenticated or
integrity checked properly.

zsync seems to be the most promising solution to this class of problems.

-- 
 - mdz