Bug#701161: freefem++: /usr/bin/FreeFem++ and /usr/bin/FreeFem++nw are the same files

Sat Feb 23 20:30:10 UTC 2013

On Sat, Feb 23, 2013 at 10:20:04PM +0200, Dimitrios Eftaxiopoulos wrote:
> > [1] Have a look at /bin/bzip2 and /bin/bunzip2. They are hardlinks but
> >     perform different jobs.
> 
> I may be wrong but bzip2 and bunzip2 seem to be distinct executables. They add 
> up to 60,9kB while each one is 30,5kB.

They are hard links. Use ls -li to see that their inodes are the same
and that they have link-count 2. Could you maybe add something like the
following to your debian/rules file?

cmp -s $(CURDIR)/debian/freefem++/usr/bin/FreeFem++ $(CURDIR)/debian/freefem++/usr/bin/FreeFem++-nw && ln -f $(CURDIR)/debian/freefem++/usr/bin/FreeFem++ $(CURDIR)/debian/freefem++/usr/bin/FreeFem++-nw

At present this will reduce the size of the binary package by 18%.
Should upstream decide to ship different files in a future version, then
this command is turned into a no-op because the cmp fails. The link
showing the reduction was broken in my initial bug report. The correct
one is http://dedup.debian.net/binary/freefem++. Thanks for considering.

Helmut