[Aptitude-devel] Bug#791662: aptitude: debdelta integration

[Axel Beckert]

Hi,

Yuri D'Elia wrote:
> First, some debdelta praise: I've been using debdelta on and off over the last
> years depending on the circumstances. Whenever I'm working on a lousy/slow
> internet connection (quite often, unfortunately), debdelta is effectively my
> only chance to perform upgrades to massive packages like tetex, libreoffice, or
> the like. The bandwidth saving are, in most cases, absolutely enormous
> (especially when packaging tweaks are being pushed).

Same here.

> It would be awesome if aptitude itself supported debdelta when installed. This
> would mean to run `debdelta-upgrade [selected package list]` as opposed to
> downloading the packages directly. I couldn't care less about the progress
> meter in this scenario, and having "something that works" would be better than
> just running "debdelta-upgrade" blindly and then continuing with aptitude.

aptitude uses apt methods to download files. So I think that
integration should be done as an apt method for easier integration
with _any_ apt based package manager and to avoid duplicating the
integration effort.

The documentation for developing such a backend is at
/usr/share/doc/libapt-pkg-doc/method.html/index.html (in the package
libapt-pkg-doc).

> I believe *many* users would realize debdelta existed if debdelta was actually
> integrated into aptitude and suggested as a dependency. debdelta is suggested
> by 'libcupt' (and thus, when cupt is installed), but sincerely I have no use
> for another frontend if I'm already using aptitude.

JFTR: cupt is _not_ yet another frontend but on the same level as apt.

> It would also be *very* important, irregardless if debdelta is installed and/or
> if it will ever be integrated on a lower level, to allow the user to switch
> between regular/debdelta updates though an option in the configuration:
> debdelta trades between CPU time and bandwidth, and if you have a decent
> network connection, debdelta is often slower. A setting is definitely
> warranted.

Definitely, yes.

		Regards, Axel
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