[tz] [PROPOSED PATCH 2/2] Use lz format for new tarball

Antonio Diaz Diaz antonio at gnu.org
Fri Aug 26 23:10:04 UTC 2016


Paul Eggert wrote:
>> please use a compression format that can be handled easily by
>> Windows users as well. For instance, choose a format from the list
>> that 7Zip can handle: http://www.7-zip.org/
>
> Thanks for mentioning the problem. xz format is on 7-Zip's list; it's
> a tiny bit larger than lzip format for our data (0.3% larger for the
> draft tzdb tarball) but I suppose portability trumps this minor
> advantage.

Please, do not use xz for a new distribution format. The xz format is 
defective. See for example http://www.nongnu.org/lzip/xz_inadequate.html 
or the note in the third xz test at the bottom of 
http://www.nongnu.org/lzip/lzip_benchmark.html

If a format that 7-Zip can handle is desired, I recommend bzip2 which 
produces a tzdb tarball a 25% smaller than gzip and only a 9% larger 
than lzip.


Best regards,
Antonio.



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