@scarabeusiv

You'll need to add zstd support to deltarpm first.

You'll need to add zstd support to deltarpm first.

Sure, I'm willing to implement that if that's the only blocker.

(Looking at the fedora mailing list it's pretty unclear to me if they'll switch or stay with xz. It doesn't seem to be worth the trouble.)

As mention in the wiki page, they are considering to do it: Contingency deadline: 2019-10-01 (a week before the Final Freeze). But I agree with you, I would with for now.

I've already got a pending SR for getting zstd support enabled in rpm, in connection to the Fedora change: https://build.opensuse.org/request/show/706643

(I've added zstd support to deltarpm.)

And apparently a different SR was accepted that turned on the zstd support in Base:System/rpm. 😢

Oh well, at least it's activated there. It just needs to be submitted to Factory now.

SR to Factory submitted: https://build.opensuse.org/request/show/709948

So FESCo approved the change proposal last week, and it's going to be implemented in a couple of weeks in Rawhide. The drpm library will be getting support for zstd DeltaRPMs soon, which unblocks zstd DeltaRPM handling in createrepo_c.

(SUSE doesn't build createrepo_c with drpm support, but nevermind...)

@mlschroe Yes, I know SUSE ships createrepo_c crippled (despite my best efforts...), but those are the steps being taken now to switch things over in Fedora.

At this point, all the pieces should be in place to do this, if we want. Ideally, we'd need SUSE Linux 15 rpm to support zstd compression so that it can read and handle Factory/SUSE Linux 16 packages.

@mlschroe Can we get rpm in SLE 15 SP2 to support zstd RPMs?

I can confirm that Fedora really switches to zstd 19.

And adding @DimStar77 as the maintainer of Factory, what do you think about it?

And I've just noticed that Archlinux has done the same (zstd level 19):
https://lists.archlinux.org/pipermail/arch-announce/2020-January/000400.html

The overall plan to switch to zstd sounds good. But before we do do in TW, we need to have at least the still supported leap versions support extracting those rpms, as otherwise we can't zypper dip from there.

Once we enable zstd, we will have to drop all zdup tests from older openSUSE versions - but that's a sour apple we will have to bite. Pity, but acceptable

Oh, archs stats to get an increase by 0.8% for the rpms can give us some more fun with space restrictions on the DVD and live media (at least lives are always at their limits... So increasing will likely push them over the edge)

Based on the discussion with @mlschroe, the backport for Leap 15 in on the way.
I've just done SR to rpm where I changed the compression and level:
https://build.opensuse.org/request/show/766061

Dominique, what compression level do you recommend?

Dominique, what compression level do you recommend?

Really tough question - considering that even level 19 gives a 0.8% increase in size (which is likely going to blow up our ISOs) I can't imagine any lower compression level providing any better fun.

hence -> 19 (giving up all the speed gains we received by RPM 4.15 parallel compression when building LibreOffice; but the time won by install time is still worth it imho)

Really tough question - considering that even level 19 gives a 0.8% increase in size (which is likely going to blow up our ISOs) I can't imagine any lower compression level providing any better fun.

hence -> 19 (giving up all the speed gains we received by RPM 4.15 parallel compression when building LibreOffice; but the time won by install time is still worth it imho)

We should test a real impact in a staging project. That will tell more about ISO size.

Based on the discussion with @mlschroe, the backport for Leap 15 in on the way.
I've just done SR to rpm where I changed the compression and level:
https://build.opensuse.org/request/show/766061

grumbles that we should stop patching rpm for vendor changes and use this for it

Update?

We're waiting for Leap 15.2 release and then we'll change it for openSUSE Factory.

Why are we waiting for Leap 15.2 to release to do it? We already know it's coming...

Yes because we guarantee that zypper dup from an older release will be updated to Tumbleweed. And 15.2 will be first release where zstd will be supported by rpm.

Interesting. Post here when you get further information on this. Thank you.

openSUSE Leap 15.2 is planned to be released in early July 2020, based on SLE 15 SP2. openSUSE Leap has a no Monday and Friday release policy (Alpha, Beta, RC, GA), pre-agreed day of week for releases is Thursday.

https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Roadmap#Upcoming_openSUSE_Leap_Release

Leap 15.2
Is Now Available

Leap 15.2
Is Now Available

The rpm changes landed to Base:System/rpm and there's a pending submit request to openSUSE:Factory.