Gentoo Archives: gentoo-dev

From: Roy Bamford <neddyseagoon@g.o>
To: gentoo-dev@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] [pre-GLEP] Gentoo binary package container format
Date: Sun, 18 Nov 2018 11:04:55
Message-Id: tT/ca2LRoxORtpWU9Pgn5Y@2/q1mhp4WxgKGbCTFoURY
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-dev] [pre-GLEP] Gentoo binary package container format by "Michał Górny"
1 On 2018.11.18 09:38, Michał Górny wrote:
2 > On Sun, 2018-11-18 at 10:16 +0100, Fabian Groffen wrote:
3 > > On 17-11-2018 12:21:40 +0100, Michał Górny wrote:
4 > > > Problems with the current binary package format
5
6 [snip]
7
8 > > > 2. **The format relies on obscure compressor feature of ignoring
9 > > > trailing garbage**. While this behavior is traditionally
10 > implemented
11 > > > by many compressors, the original reasons for it have become
12 > long
13 > > > irrelevant and it is not surprising that new compressors do not
14 > > > support it. In particular, Portage already hit this problem
15 > twice:
16 > > > once when users replaced bzip2 with parallel-capable pbzip2
17 > > > implementation [#PBZIP2]_, and the second time when support for
18 > zstd
19 > > > compressor was added [#ZSTD]_.
20 > >
21 > > I think this is actually the result of a rather opportunistic
22 > > implementation. The fault is that we chose to use an extension that
23 > > suggests the file is a regular compressed tarball.
24 > > When one detects that a file is xpak padded, it is trivial to feed
25 > the
26 > > decompressor just the relevant part of the datastream. The format
27 > > itself isn't bad, and doesn't rely on obscure behaviour.
28 >
29 > Except if you don't have the proper tools installed. In which case
30 > the 'opportunistic' behavior made it possible to extract the contents
31 > without special tools... except when it actually happens not to work
32 > anymore. Roy's reply indicates that there is actually interest in
33 > this
34 > design feature.
35 >
36 [snip]
37
38 Team,
39
40 I use to post something like https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Fix_My_Gentoo
41 with a link to Patricks binhost on the forums every three or four months.
42 It made it worth writing that wiki page anyway.
43
44 We still get users removing elements of their toolchain or glbc from time
45 to time. The requirement that I didn't express very well, is that it shall
46 be possible to install binary packages without the use of any Gentoo
47 specific tooling.
48
49 The current tarball of tarballs proposal would satisfy that requirement.
50
51 Its unlikely that a custom binary format would. Of course, this being
52 Gentoo someone would write a run anywhere script that did the
53 unpicking, We already have deb2targz and rpm2targz. We have the
54 opportunity to design out binpgk2targz before it exists.
55
56 --
57 Regards,
58
59 Roy Bamford
60 (Neddyseagoon) a member of
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