Re: [Apt-proxy-users] Performance problems on Debian/mips

[Manuel E. S. <ra...@de...>]

On Tue, Mar 05, 2002 at 07:30:44PM +0100, Chris Halls wrote:
> Hi Manuel, sorry I took a while to get back to you.
> 
[snip]
> 
> I got hold of Jason today on IRC and we discussed the whole thing.  He's
> joined this list so we can discuss here.
> 
> It turns out that there are some issues with aptcached that could cause
> problems:
> 
>  - aptcached depends on POE.  It was so Jason could avoid having to do
>    events loops, but POE is still oficially alpha, is not in Potato and has
>    a large runtime overhead,  Jason reckoned around 2MB.  I'm not against
>    using libraries to help simplify coding and make it more maintainable,
>    but I think that POE is too big a price to pay.  Jason understands that
>    and is open to dropping POE, as long as someone else does the rewrite :-)
> 
>  - It doesn't mirror the directory structure.  That certainly simplifies the
>    code but has scalability problems and you don't end up with a partial
>    mirror.
> 
>  - HTTP 1.1 keep-alives aren't working (yet).
> 
> So it looks like a fair amount must be rewritten anyway.  Jason said he's
> open to help with whatever we decide to do, which I'm very grateful for.
> 
> If you have the time to work on a rewrite that's great by me - I'd rather
> have several people involved than just me.  It helps keep bugs shallow and
> for the program to grow faster.  The only thing I would ask for is to make
> sure others can work with the code too.  In particular, documenting what
> code is supposed to do and helping to make sure it is production-ready.

 I don't have a whole lot of time right now, but I will be rewriting
 apt-proxy as time permits, I will make the ongoing work publically
 available. Maybe it could be hosted in apt-proxy's CVS.

> >  And to start contributing on this, attached goes some scripts I wrote
> >  to import .deb into a pool structure without Package lists.
> 
> Thanks for the scripts.  It's a nice idea, to build the path using dpkg
> --info and one I had not thought of.  It only works for mirrors that use the
> current Debian mirror structure, and would have to be changed if the mirror
> structure were to be changed by the FTP maintainers in the future.
> 
> The time taken to write e.g. the apt-proxy-import script was probably less
> than half the total time it took to get it into the package, because I had
> to write documentation and do stuff like handling typical errors and provide
> --help text.  
> 
> It would still be a fair amount of work to get your scripts finished.  I'm
> not sure whether you are providing them for comment or as a contribution to
> the package.  If you want to help out, I would need you to help get things
> nearer to a completed state.  Otherwise, I would be comitting myself to a
> lot of extra work which I probably wouldn't have the time to do.

 It was meant as a contribution, but I accept the criticism, how about
 integrating it into "apt-proxy-import --mirror=pool", so if the file is
 not in the current listings it will use pool mirror structure. I would
 also update the manpage. Hmm, some places at "apt-proxy-import" read
 "echo" where is should be "echo -e" so it interprets escaped secuences,
 I will fix that also.

> Does that sound OK?  I've set up an #apt-proxy channel on openprojects IRC
> so maybe we can all talk there sometime.

 My nick in openprojects IRC is 'ranty', feel free to invite me over to
 #apt-proxy whenever you see me around.

 more TODO stuff :)
 ---------------
 
 About apt-proxy, I would like it to generate package lists with the
 package it already has, maybe even with a different release name.

 deb http://apt-proxy.x.x:9999/main/ unstable #same as it is now
 deb http://apt-proxy.x.x:9999/main/ mirror   #Packages would be generated
					      # by apt-proxy

 By making mirror a different release we could use 
 	APT::Default-Release "mirror"
 to try to stay with those packages and not download new ones while
 being able to install new stuff.

 apt-move those a preaty good job generating packages eficiently, we
 could take a look.

 I know this is not to happen soon, I just write it here for the record.

 Take care 

 	ranty


-- 
--- Manuel Estrada Sainz <ra...@de...>
			 <ra...@at...>
------------------------ <ra...@so...> ---------------------------------
God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, courage to
change the things we can, and wisdom to know the difference.