[Rpm-metadata] metadata layout problems and some history

[Klaus Kaempf]

Hi Panu,

long time no see :-)

* Panu Matilainen <pmatilai at laiskiainen.org> [Aug 12. 2010 12:39]:
[...]
> 
> XML works fine for the raw dump part, except that it's hideously
> bloated format for what it's used for and expensive to parse (dejavu
> yum-metadata-parser again), and isn't good for indexing or
> searching.
> Heck, a dumb tagged plain-text file would be much better suited for
> apt (and I assume smart).

+1

> I've vague memories of Suse actually having such a format at some point
> before switching to repodata.

SUSE had 'common.pkd' years ago and still uses 'susetags' for the
on-media metadata.

Both are plain text dumps with the possibility to include translations.
Nothing to gain here from a parsing effort perspective.

I'd rather see a future 'createrepo' format to put some computing
effort at the creation of the metadata in order to relief all clients
from repeating the work. String indexing would be the prime example.

Klaus
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