Description of problem: SRC packages commonly contain mostly redundant data from revision to revision. Since kernel is the most commonly looked at and downloaded src I will start here. The problem may apply to any series of updated src.rpms. for example all current kernel-2.6.9-1.*_FC3.src.rpm packages have linux-2.6.9.tar.bz2 (36261440 bytes) in common. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): I was comparing kernel-2.6.9-1.678_FC3.src.rpm and kernel-2.6.9-1.681_FC3.src.rpm How reproducible: very Steps to Reproduce: 1. use rpm2cpio and extract the contents of kernel-2.6.9-1.678_FC3.src.rpm and kernel-2.6.9-1.681_FC3.src.rpm into their own dir. 2.compare linux-2.6.9.tar.bz2 in both dirs. $ md5sum *-orig/linux*tar.bz2 e921200f074ca97184e150ef5a4af825 678-orig/linux-2.6.9.tar.bz2 e921200f074ca97184e150ef5a4af825 681-orig/linux-2.6.9.tar.bz2 3. Note that the two packages contain ~36MB of bz2 compressed data that is identical from update to update to update.... Actual results: I found redundant data to an extent I did not expect. Expected results: I did not expect to see this level of redundancy. Additional info: good folks reduced one duplication of kernel src with FC3 and recent FC2 updates. There is an opportunity to save bandwidth and disk space if the linux-2.6.9.tar.bz2 file was packaged in something like kernel-base and distribute the patches and spec/ build stuff in kernel-update I suspect that any change to this has non trivial impact on the user community so I do not wish to rush in.... I have no clear vision of a fix, I just wish to point out this duplication of bits so a brighter mind than I has the chance to inventing a way to tidy this up for FC4 or FC5.... Thanks, mitch
speller in subject ;-(
as you mentioned, this affects a wider array of packages than just the kernel. Assigning to distribution, as we should get a ruling common across all packages imo.
This is probably not going to get fixed in the current RPM context any time soon.