[aur-general] Huge packages in community

[Xyne]

> Xyne, as I said this is nothing personal with you (I can add to the
> list of huge maintainers: Sergej, Swiergot and many other TUs, but
> nexuiz was the package which finally made me upset since I was
> downloading by hours and the update wasn't finished just because
> nexuiz), and I know you are "new" in the crew and I thought you knew
> about the issues we had about "unpopular" and "lack of space" on the
> server , that's why I worried about a huge games on the repo, being
> honestly if you want to game it's ok, but games are not necessary to
> be on the repo, being honest.

Perhaps your definition of the word "personal" is different than mine
and, judging by the responses, others. I'm not upset with you, but I do
think your attitude is generally abrasive from what I've seen in your
previous posts. It doesn't really matter though and I don't want to
focus on that.

As I said in my first reply, Nexuiz had already been uploaded by
another TU when I took it over. The package size may have increased
with the latest release, but it was still a large package before then
and you would surely have had ample opportunity to discuss its
inclusion in community as it's been there since I began using Arch
nearly 9 months ago.

I did not know about previous discussions concerning package sizes nor
do I see how you could reasonably expect me to know about them if I
were not here for them. I have not read the entire archive of
aur-general.

What defines "necessary" when dealing with community packages? I
thought core and extra were for "necessary" packages while community
was for packages that the community wanted. Where does necessity enter
into it? Community wasn't even enabled by default before and yet people
managed to run their systems. This seems to be the definition of another
word on which we disagree.




> My proposal is not to take away these binaries in first case, my first
> option is to move huge games to another repo, why? as I said, games
> *are not necessary software*, and how will benefit a [games] repo to
> home repos?, easy!, I simply do not add [games] in the sync script and
> the script won't download it -assuming that the waste of disk space
> won't be a problem anymore of course-.. but syncing in the way that
> the script is actually doing I can't realize with "marking" packages
> for not download it.

How would that proposal handle the currently centralized mirrorlist?
Would you want to split that into separate repos?


> Of course I am talking about the situation with my home personal repo,
> which have been downloaded every week, every saturday with a 1024 kbps
> connection (And some other countries, and some other people have
> better and worst connections btw), but I guess it will save bandwidth
> on connections more powerful (like the repos that I administer) too,
> if these kind of huge games won't be added to repos.. (I know ooo is
> huge and texlive too, but ooo and texlive are necessary).

What are you doing with your personal repo? Are you using it to sync
other public repos? If not, then there is no reason at all to download
the entire community repo. If your entire argument is based on wanting
to remove a package from one of the official repos just so you can save
some time when upgrading your personal computer by having a full copy
of sync, I would call you egocentric. That is not a valid reason and it
undermines your argument.

If this is not the case, please clarify.


> Anyway, just for the record, I am trying to do a calling for
> maintainers with huge packages not necessary (like games), please
> please please, think in the bandwidth and disk space of some other
> people, =).

> Angel Velásquez

Again, what is "necessary" according to you and what bandwidth are we
talking about here? If this really is just for your personal repo?


Also note that in my first reply I offered to move Nexuiz to the AUR,
stating the pros and cons that such a move would entail. I hope that
some other TUs will weigh in on this discussion and post their thoughts
on my previous suggestion.

Regards,
Xyne