[Fedora-livecd-list] Trimming the size of LiveCD's

[Jeroen van Meeuwen]

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Jeremy Katz wrote:
> On Fri, 2007-08-31 at 10:24 +0200, Jeroen van Meeuwen wrote:
>> Here's a thought:
>>
>> 1304 random packages will install 724 MB of data in /usr/share/doc
>>
>> I'm sure there is /something/ to gain here. If every package on average
>> installs ~0.5 MB of docs... Would it worth figuring out what docs should
>> be on the LiveCD in the first place? I guess removing everything RPM
>> calls docs is too much, as this will include man-pages as well.
>>
>> Any thoughts?
> 
> If the live images weren't installable?  Sure.  Since they are, though,
> you're trading off a little space in the short-term[1] for hurting every
> user in the long-term.  Because they a) won't have the docs if they want
> them b) won't be able to use deltarpms[2] c) make the system look hacked
> by rpm -V not working, ...
> 

Ohw, but my thoughts do not necessarily apply only to what the Fedora
Project wants/needs. I'm with you that this should not be applied to
LiveCDs the Fedora Project distributes and have a default to copy
themselves block-by-block. For other LiveCDs however, distributed along
with some medium carrying RPMs or using a netinstall tree or simply not
being installable removing any irrelevant files is a space-saver, don't
you think?

> It's really just not a good idea for the official images.  That said,
> anyone who wants to for their own unofficial live images that they build
> for whatever reason is more than welcome to have "rm
> -rf /usr/share/doc/*"[3] in their %post.
> 

I was looking for a way to be more considerate with removing files ;-)
That's actually what the thread was about in the first place.

> The _better_ thing to do is to actually look at what's being installed
> as docs and then figure out some improved packaging policy and see about
> not shipping some of it.  eg, I'm not sure it makes sense to ship the
> ChangeLogs in general, either for the live CD or a regular system.  But
> I suspect that to be somewhat controversial.
> 

You're right this is what I wanted in the first place. If I think of a
LiveCD I think of a fully-featured desktop more then a fully-documented
command shell because the CD has only 700MB. I'm looking for what can be
removed without loosing common help documentation, but getting rid of
files that consume space I could maybe use to put an extra feature in.
If this disables being rpm -qVa'd, so be it. If it's not installable, so
be it. If I need some extra medium carrying the RPMs or need to go
online, so be it. A LiveCD IMO is often just a show-case, not an
installer nor a system that runs for hours and hours and needs to be rpm
- -qV(a)'d from time to time.

> Jeremy
> 
> [1] It was about 10 megs for the end live image the last time I looked.
> Which in the scheme of things isn't that much

Just the ChangeLogs? 10 megs? Wow.

- --
Kind regards,

Jeroen van Meeuwen
- -kanarip

- --
http://www.kanarip.com/
RHCE, LPIC-2, MCP, CCNA
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