Bug#1011343: WISHLIST: Offical ALL-IN-ONE images?

Hey Thomas!

On Sun, May 22, 2022 at 12:03:23PM +0200, Thomas Schmitt wrote:
>Steve McIntyre wrote:
>> youre initial guess is correct. We don't generate the .iso files
>> at all for the larger images [1]. This means we also don't have
>> torrent files for them [2].
>
>I began to ponder about a shortcut in libisofs which would trust the
>checksum file (-checksum-list , -md5-list) enough to omit the reading of
>all the package files' content.
>Size, ownership, permissions, et.al would still be taken from the package
>files on disk. No ISO image would emerge (because of no valid file content)
>but .jigdo and .template would be created.
>Probably libjte would need an API extension so that it knows that only
>the count parameter of a libjte_show_data_chunk() call is valid.
>Vice versa libisofs would have to ask libjte whether a particular file
>is covered by the checksum list.
>
>All tricky and probably not worth the risk of embarassing failure.

Cute idea (grin!), but it's a non-started - we wouldn't be able to
generate the various checksums for the whole image.

>So back to my idea of merging ISOs:
>
>> The debian-cd code in tools/make_disc_trees.pl is not documentation
>> **as such**, but it's exactly how we create disc trees:
>
>I am using it now for checking detail questions.
>
>
>> It's baiscally just making a self-contained apt repository on each medium.
>
>So
>  https://wiki.debian.org/DebianRepository/Format
>looks like the specs to follow.
>
>Question (to everybody):
>
>The description of Packages[.gz] files talks of "paragraphs" but does not
>exactly define a paragraph's end delimiter. From Packages.gz in the ISO
>i'd guess it is an empty line or the "Package" field of the next paragraph.
>
>Is an empty line needed between paragraphs ?

Yup, it's an empty line.

>Would more than one empty line between paragraphs damage the readability ?

Not sure, to be honest.

>Reason: I want to merge the Packages.gz files like
>
>  (gunzip <from_DLBD_1/Packages.gz ; gunzip <from_DLBD_2/Packages.gz ) \
>  | gzip >temp_file
>
>but am not sure that the found Packages.gz will always end by an empty
>line.  So i could simply insert an echo between the gunzips, or simply
>trust that the empty line is not needed as separator, or begin to think ...

Might just work, yeah!