So, we're up to 180MB in updates.

[ubuntu at rio.vg]

Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On Sat, 2006-07-15 at 11:51 -0400, Kent Borg wrote:
> 
>> I understand that a one-bit security fix can cause a recompile of,
>> say, Openoffice.  And the result of doing a gigantic download because
>> of one bit changing is terribly crude.  Think about it.  If we ran
>> cities this way a single mis-installed oneway sign and we would have
>> to rebuild NYC.  Or, maybe just rebuild Manhattan.  Or, maybe just
>> rebuild one block of Manhattan.  Good thing in a real city we can
>> usually just slap up the right sign.
> 
> The side effect problems of doing it any other way are horrific.
> 
> If the change is a text file, we could distribute a diff - that's easy
> enough. Binaries are another story. To continue your analogy, this is
> like issuing an instruction that all cities must remove the 14th sign
> from the left at the 9th intersection on the 3rd highway, and replace it
> with not one, but two new signs...
> 
> A possibility is to distribute only the binary files that changed, with
> some thought it might be gotten to work, but I'd still be nervous about
> the impact that will have on a running system. And also consider the
> effect on the digest that all package managers maintain - this will also
> have to be updated, but in my experience package managers are not built
> to accommodate partial changes to the things they install.
> 

rpm has had this feature with delta rpms for years.  Left in the cache
on one of my machines, for instance, is a Firefox delta rpm that's only
1.1 mb.