On Sat, 2007-01-13 at 19:42 +0200, Ahmed Kamal wrote:
> not sure I understand your question, but they way things should go is,
> the client downloads the drpm, client side code combines client side
> files from older rpm + the drpm into a new rpm. Then that new rpm is
> installed. The required bandwidth should drop to 20%, the numbers need
> some testing ofcourse, but I can imagine such savings.
>
SuSE did a lot of work on distributing the files as less than a whole
rpm. Their original tool works as you say, with an "rpm patch file"
that combines with an rpm on the client's system which is then
installed. The newer tool that they were pushing a couple years ago was
also able to upgrade files on the filesystem rather than going through
the intermediate step of creating an rpm. I consider this method to be
less desirable from a security standpoint than the first.
-Toshio