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Maniphest T60081

Updating Blender Linux Compression Method
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Description

Further to an IRC chat (around 6 months ago), believe spoke with Campbell about an idea of updating the compression method used for Linux downloads.

In case helpful, tried some tests with yesterdays Blender 2.79 Buildbot version.

  • OS

Linux Mint 19.1 Cinnamon 64bit

  • Hardware

Older laptop (2012), 16GB RAM, i7-2670QM CPU @ 2.20GHz × 4

  • File 1

blender-2.79-111179beb0b1-linux-glibc224-x86_64.tar.bz2
Size: 169.5 MB
Extraction time: 47.73 seconds

  • File 2

blender-2.79-111179beb0b1-linux-glibc224-x86_64.7z
Size: 117.5 MB
Extraction time: 14.06 seconds

  • Methodology

.7z created from files extracted from .tar.bz2, no changes made, default compression settings.

Apart from size, and extraction speed, there's also the benefit that .7z files don't go through an extraction process twice like .tar.bz2, or other .tar.* formats.

Campbell kindly replied via email:
"Note that we'd probably go with tar.xz since this seems more common on
Linux these days and has similar results to 7z (used by ArchLinux,
https://www.python.org/downloads/source/ also have this as an option)."

.tar.xz test

  • File 3

blender-2.79-111179beb0b1-linux-glibc224-x86_64.tar.xz
Size: 128.4 MB
Extraction time: 24.40 seconds

Also tried .zip

  • File 4

blender-2.79-111179beb0b1-linux-glibc224-x86_64.zip
Size: 177.7 MB
Extraction time: 06.25 seconds

.7z seems most optimised for size and speed, but understand need to be accessible to as many as possible.

Thank you for your time, and consideration.
David

Event Timeline

David Black (david_black) created this task.Jan 2 2019, 8:16 PM
David Black (david_black) updated the task description. (Show Details)Jan 2 2019, 8:25 PM
David Black (david_black) updated the task description. (Show Details)
Brecht Van Lommel (brecht) changed the task status from Unknown Status to Unknown Status.Jan 2 2019, 8:26 PM
Brecht Van Lommel (brecht) claimed this task.
Brecht Van Lommel (brecht) added a subscriber: Brecht Van Lommel (brecht).

Thanks for the suggestion, and I agree we could switch. This has also been discussed here:
https://devtalk.blender.org/t/why-not-use-tar-xz-to-2-8-distribution/4136

On this website To Do tasks are created by developers to plan their own work though, it's not for users to create tasks for their suggestions.

David Black (david_black) added a comment.Jan 2 2019, 8:37 PM

Ah, thanks Brecht,

When asked to create the task, didn't seem right to set the Type as Bug, Patch, Design, or OpenGL Error, so opted for To Do. Maybe there could be an 'Enhancement Idea', or just 'Idea' option added?

Ray Molenkamp (LazyDodo) added a subscriber: Ray Molenkamp (LazyDodo).EditedJan 2 2019, 8:41 PM

This website is used to track bugs, feature requests or ideas are not supposed to be here, hence there is no category for them in the list you mentioned.

from the bug report form

What not to report here
For feature requests, feedback, questions or issues building Blender, see communication channels.

The above link has some alternatives where ideas can be discussed.