On Fri, May 03, 2024 at 08:43:11AM +0200, Heinrich Schuchardt wrote:
> On Debian I have seen apt-update downloading diff files. Why don't we use
> those for Ubuntu
Disclaimer: I have never benchmarked this, but am going by my observations
from 20 years ago when this was adopted by Debian.
In the common case, pdiff files decrease the *data transfer size* for
downloading indices, but increase the *clock time* it takes to update the
apt database. Therefore there has never been evidence that it's a net win
given modern Internet connections, and no one has ever agitated for this to
be a priority in Ubuntu/Launchpad.
> especially for the large files like Contents?
The tradeoffs there are indeed likely to be different (larger files, smaller
incremental deltas), but as pointed out, downloading of Contents files is
not a common use case and so any implementation would certainly be
prioritized accordingly.
--
Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world.
Ubuntu Developer https://www.debian.org/
slangasek@ubuntu.com vorlon@debian.org
