Debian Bug report logs - #975261
diffoscope: install footprint is 2.6GB, please move some recommends to suggests

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Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Ximin Luo <infinity0@debian.org>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: diffoscope: install footprint is 2.6GB, please move some recommends to suggests

Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2020 18:35:11 +0000

Package: diffoscope
Version: 161
Severity: important
File: diffoscope

Dear Maintainer,

The size of diffoscope is getting really quite ridiculous, all the recommends
now come to ~2.6 GB installed size, even though they are not used in the vast
majority of use cases. Not only is the disk space wasted, the extra packages
causes APT maintenance headaches when upgrading, it often wants to install
random extra dependencies not necessarily caused by diffoscope itself, but an
upgrade to one of its recommends.

Sometimes the grandchildren provides of the child recommends interact badly,
for example on my system installing diffoscope wants to install evince and
gnome3-desktop-data for some reason, even though I already have another PDF
viewer installed.

Debian Policy says:
"Recommends: This declares a strong, but not absolute, dependency."

and that is why apt-get installs these by default. However most of the current
Recommends are for rare use cases. Furthermore diffoscope already has very
nice run-time logic to detect when a needed program is not installed, and
tells you to install it.

I have managed to figure out that by moving the following Recommends to
Suggests one can cut the footprint from 2.6GB to about 64MB which is much more
reasonable. Therefore please do that. These are ordered roughly by size:

- ghc - 800MB
- ocaml-nox - 460MB
- llvm - 330MB
- fp-utils - 320MB
- default-jdk-headless | default-jdk | java-sdk - 240MB for default-jdk-headless
- python3-guestfs - 150MB
- python3-binwalk - 140MB
- gnumeric - 85MB
- apktool - 50MB
- mono-utils - 30MB
- radare2 - 30MB
- xmlbeans - 20MB
- ovmf - 14MB

This will make it much easier to keep having diffoscope on a system across
multiple system upgrades.

X

-- System Information:
Debian Release: bullseye/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (500, 'buildd-unstable'), (500, 'stable'), (300, 'unstable'), (200, 'experimental'), (1, 'buildd-experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 5.6.0-2-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU threads)
Kernel taint flags: TAINT_WARN
Locale: LANG=en_GB.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Message #12 received at 975261@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Holger Levsen <holger@layer-acht.org>

To: 975261@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#975261: diffoscope: install footprint is 2.6GB, please move some recommends to suggests

Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2020 09:31:55 +0000

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On Thu, Nov 19, 2020 at 06:35:11PM +0000, Ximin Luo wrote:
> I have managed to figure out that by moving the following Recommends to
> Suggests one can cut the footprint from 2.6GB to about 64MB which is much more
> reasonable. Therefore please do that. These are ordered roughly by size:

maybe this can be solved by having two (or three) diffoscope packages:

- diffoscope-basic with the packages as suggests only
- diffoscope-full with the packages as recommends
- diffoscope-core with just diffoscope, which is the package the above two depend on


-- 
cheers,
	Holger

 ⢀⣴⠾⠻⢶⣦⠀
 ⣾⠁⢠⠒⠀⣿⡁       holger@(debian|reproducible-builds|layer-acht).org
 ⢿⡄⠘⠷⠚⠋⠀ PGP fingerprint: B8BF 5413 7B09 D35C F026 FE9D 091A B856 069A AA1C
 ⠈⠳⣄

“If the fires of 2020 horrify you, consider that, no matter what we do, by
 2050, when the benefits of even fast climate action will only begin to arrive,
 the area burned annually in the (US) West is expected to at least double and
 perhaps quadruple.” (David Wallace-Wells)

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Message #15 received at 975261@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Mattia Rizzolo <mattia@debian.org>

To: 975261@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#975261: diffoscope: install footprint is 2.6GB, please move some recommends to suggests

Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2020 11:45:43 +0100

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On Fri, Nov 20, 2020 at 09:31:55AM +0000, Holger Levsen wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 19, 2020 at 06:35:11PM +0000, Ximin Luo wrote:
> > I have managed to figure out that by moving the following Recommends to
> > Suggests one can cut the footprint from 2.6GB to about 64MB which is much more
> > reasonable. Therefore please do that. These are ordered roughly by size:
> 
> maybe this can be solved by having two (or three) diffoscope packages:

I agree, I don't want to need to use apt-get --install-suggests when
installing diffoscope; even more because that's likely to fail due to
random suggests conflicting or non existing or whatnot.  And it would
lead to even bigger installation size.

> - diffoscope-full with the packages as recommends

I reckon this "type" should stay named "diffoscope", what it currently
is.  So current users still get what they currently get.

> - diffoscope-basic with the packages as suggests only

ack.

> - diffoscope-core with just diffoscope, which is the package the above two depend on

ack.


If others (especially Crhis, since it's him doing most of diffoscope
work nowadays) agree, I can take care of doing the needing packaging
changes.

-- 
regards,
                        Mattia Rizzolo

GPG Key: 66AE 2B4A FCCF 3F52 DA18  4D18 4B04 3FCD B944 4540      .''`.
More about me:  https://mapreri.org                             : :'  :
Launchpad user: https://launchpad.net/~mapreri                  `. `'`
Debian QA page: https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=mattia  `-

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Message #20 received at 975261@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Holger Levsen <holger@layer-acht.org>

To: 975261@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#975261: diffoscope: install footprint is 2.6GB, please move some recommends to suggests

Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2020 10:55:22 +0000

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On Fri, Nov 20, 2020 at 11:45:43AM +0100, Mattia Rizzolo wrote:
> > - diffoscope-full with the packages as recommends
> I reckon this "type" should stay named "diffoscope", what it currently
> is.  So current users still get what they currently get.

agreed, that's better.


-- 
cheers,
	Holger

 ⢀⣴⠾⠻⢶⣦⠀
 ⣾⠁⢠⠒⠀⣿⡁       holger@(debian|reproducible-builds|layer-acht).org
 ⢿⡄⠘⠷⠚⠋⠀ PGP fingerprint: B8BF 5413 7B09 D35C F026 FE9D 091A B856 069A AA1C
 ⠈⠳⣄

Stop saying that we are all in the same boat.
We’re all in the same storm.
But we’re not all in the same boat.

[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, inline)]

Message #25 received at 975261@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: "Chris Lamb" <lamby@debian.org>

To: "Holger Levsen" <holger@layer-acht.org>, 975261@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#975261: diffoscope: install footprint is 2.6GB, please move some recommends to suggests

Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2020 13:07:03 -0000

Holger Levsen wrote:

> maybe this can be solved by having two (or three) diffoscope packages:

One thing I would like to ensure that we do not cause a reduction in
functionality for some extremely prevalent use-cases.

I'm not just thinking of end-users here: in fact, I am thinking of
various automated systems such as (a) tests.reproducible-builds.org,
(b) try.diffoscope.org, as well as (c) the reproducible testing that
is performed via salsa.debian.org's own CI.

These are, AIUI, all installing "diffoscope" with recommends enabled,
or at least they work on the expectation that installing the
recommends of this package will result in a fully-featured Diffoscope.

Of course, all of these could be changed to install a -full package or
to install Suggests, etc. etc. but I think we should retain the
current expectations for now. After all, there may be far more than
the three use-cases I listed above that we have even less control
over.

In technical terms, this would seem to imply a diffoscope-core (or a
diffoscope-minimal or a diffoscope-bikeshed), that would (at least)
not Recommend the largest packages Ximin highlighted.


Regards,

--
      ,''`.
     : :'  :     Chris Lamb
     `. `'`      lamby@debian.org 🍥 chris-lamb.co.uk
       `-

Message #28 received at 975261-submitter@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Mattia Rizzolo <mattia@debian.org>

To: 975261-submitter@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Bug#975261 marked as pending in diffoscope

Date: Sun, 22 Nov 2020 13:19:34 +0000

Control: tag -1 pending

Hello,

Bug #975261 in diffoscope reported by you has been fixed in the
Git repository and is awaiting an upload. You can see the commit
message below and you can check the diff of the fix at:

https://salsa.debian.org/reproducible-builds/diffoscope/-/commit/c5cb7f5dd35b151d252523cea243e9051c204504

------------------------------------------------------------------------
debian: Split the diffoscope package into 3, so users who wants to do so can more easily avoid the slew of Recommends

diffoscope-core: contains all the files, but minimal dependencies
diffoscope-basic: contains most recommends, avoiding those considered too "huge"
diffoscope: keeps behaving like the current one, installing as much as possible

Closes: #975261
Signed-off-by: Mattia Rizzolo <mattia@debian.org>
------------------------------------------------------------------------

(this message was generated automatically)
-- 
Greetings

https://bugs.debian.org/975261

Message #33 received at 975261-submitter@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Mattia Rizzolo <mattia@debian.org>

To: 975261-submitter@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Bug#975261 marked as pending in diffoscope

Date: Wed, 25 Nov 2020 15:32:07 +0000

Control: tag -1 pending

Hello,

Bug #975261 in diffoscope reported by you has been fixed in the
Git repository and is awaiting an upload. You can see the commit
message below and you can check the diff of the fix at:

https://salsa.debian.org/reproducible-builds/diffoscope/-/commit/2ed38723fa2147ceca3f5bf7be0ec2046b523fce

------------------------------------------------------------------------
debian: Split the diffoscope package into 2, so users who wants to do so can more easily avoid the slew of Recommends

diffoscope-minimal: contains all the files, but avoid some recommended
packages that are considered too "huge" for the common use.
diffoscope: keeps behaving like the current one, installing as much as possible

Closes: #975261
Signed-off-by: Mattia Rizzolo <mattia@debian.org>
------------------------------------------------------------------------

(this message was generated automatically)
-- 
Greetings

https://bugs.debian.org/975261

Message #36 received at 975261-submitter@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Mattia Rizzolo <mattia@debian.org>

To: 975261-submitter@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Bug#975261 marked as pending in diffoscope

Date: Wed, 25 Nov 2020 15:32:21 +0000

Control: tag -1 pending

Hello,

Bug #975261 in diffoscope reported by you has been fixed in the
Git repository and is awaiting an upload. You can see the commit
message below and you can check the diff of the fix at:

https://salsa.debian.org/reproducible-builds/diffoscope/-/commit/2ed38723fa2147ceca3f5bf7be0ec2046b523fce

------------------------------------------------------------------------
debian: Split the diffoscope package into 2, so users who wants to do so can more easily avoid the slew of Recommends

diffoscope-minimal: contains all the files, but avoid some recommended
packages that are considered too "huge" for the common use.
diffoscope: keeps behaving like the current one, installing as much as possible

Closes: #975261
Signed-off-by: Mattia Rizzolo <mattia@debian.org>
------------------------------------------------------------------------

(this message was generated automatically)
-- 
Greetings

https://bugs.debian.org/975261

Message #41 received at 975261-close@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Debian FTP Masters <ftpmaster@ftp-master.debian.org>

To: 975261-close@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Bug#975261: fixed in diffoscope 162

Date: Mon, 30 Nov 2020 17:00:08 +0000

Source: diffoscope
Source-Version: 162
Done: Chris Lamb <lamby@debian.org>

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
diffoscope, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.

A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 975261@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Chris Lamb <lamby@debian.org> (supplier of updated diffoscope package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@ftp-master.debian.org)


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

Format: 1.8
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 2020 09:41:32 +0000
Source: diffoscope
Binary: diffoscope diffoscope-minimal
Architecture: source all
Version: 162
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Reproducible builds folks <reproducible-builds@lists.alioth.debian.org>
Changed-By: Chris Lamb <lamby@debian.org>
Description:
 diffoscope - in-depth visual diff tool for files, archives and directories
 diffoscope-minimal - in-depth visual diff tool for files, archives and directories
Closes: 975261 975313
Changes:
 diffoscope (162) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   [ Chris Lamb ]
   * Don't depends on radare2 in the Debian autopkgtests as it will not be in
     bullseye due to security considerations (#950372). (Closes: #975313)
   * Avoid "Command `s p a c e d o u t` failed" messages when creating an
     artificial CalledProcessError instance in our generic from_operation
     feeder creator.
   * Overhaul long and short descriptions.
   * Use the operation's full name so that "command failed" messages include
     its arguments.
   * Add a missing comma in a comment.
 .
   [ Jelmer Vernooij ]
   * Add missing space to the error message when only one argument is passed to
     diffoscope.
 .
   [ Holger Levsen ]
   * Update Standards-Version to 4.5.1.
 .
   [ Mattia Rizzolo ]
   * Split the diffoscope package into a diffoscope-minimal package that
     excludes the larger packages from Recommends. (Closes: #975261)
   * Drop support for Python 3.6.
Checksums-Sha1:
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 70937a61ed0ccda602f67436753a3514b6b0a6c2 988200 diffoscope_162.tar.xz
 1bb78efe3763959dc43a9265b12b8d2850214c11 153988 diffoscope-minimal_162_all.deb
 f4a83c4e25aa30a0d5807d088d1bb8bca1aa80b4 58104 diffoscope_162_all.deb
 206e353136f1785e91fb0693dcc45cd8ba743ab1 27490 diffoscope_162_amd64.buildinfo
Checksums-Sha256:
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 3dfe6bb2241701401cefefde5c243b755542393cd0e4d00feed80ab30c34e43e 988200 diffoscope_162.tar.xz
 9448b25b4be2c9d51e6e9b938a1c904cf159ba379255767df3196683a2c21be1 153988 diffoscope-minimal_162_all.deb
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Files:
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 60459c500dd672bb8794c0bc8543c17e 58104 devel optional diffoscope_162_all.deb
 75f2365fbd6fbf1036805302c39fdb8e 27490 devel optional diffoscope_162_amd64.buildinfo

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