[Fedora-packaging] Re: Proposal to limit file deps

[Panu Matilainen]

On Thu, 21 Dec 2006, Axel Thimm wrote:

> On Thu, Dec 21, 2006 at 12:59:37PM +0200, Panu Matilainen wrote:
>> On Wed, 20 Dec 2006, Toshio Kuratomi wrote:
>>> '''SHOULD''': If the package has file dependencies outside
>>> of /etc, /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin, or /usr/sbin consider requiring the
>>> package which provides the file instead of the file itself.
>>>
>>> Using file dependencies outside of /etc, /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin,
>>> or /usr/sbin requires yum (and other depsolvers using the repomd format)
>>> to download and parse a large xml file looking for the dependency.
>>> Helping the depsolvers avoid this processing by depending on the package
>>> instead of the file saves our end users a lot of time.
>>
>> Just FWIW, this doesn't actually help smart and apt at all,
>
> Why? If unneccessary file dependencies are removed the files sizes get
> smaller. Of course, yum has the larger benefits, but apt/smart/etc
> would benefit from say cutting off half of the file dependencies, too.

Looking up a file dependency is just as cheap as looking up a package 
dependency in apt and smart (AFAIK, haven't studien smart in too much 
detail), once the initial crunching through the available files is done.

Throwing out *unnecessary* dependencies (file or package) is obviously 
good, even if it's hardly noticeable in the filesizes in reality. This 
simply doesn't change the fact that apt and smart need to download the 
filelists.xml along with primary.xml at all times to guarantee working 
with any old repomd repository.

 	- Panu -