Package: p7zip Version: 4.58~dfsg.1-1 Severity: normal 7-zip has compression filters for machine code on various architectures, which modify branching instructions to make machine code more compressible. A quick test shows that it does indeed make a significant difference: bash compresses from 797784 bytes to 295693 bytes with the bcj2 filter, compared to 325451 bytes without it. Similarly, libc.so.6 compresses from 1375536 bytes to 459570 bytes with bcj2, compared to 493073 bytes without it.
According to the 7-zip documentation, it has these machine code compression filters on by default, but only for files with extensions dll, exe, ocx, sfx, and sys. Naturally, that default does not do much good for non-Windows systems. At least on Linux, 7-zip should detect executable files by looking for an ELF header, or for an ar archive containing files with ELF headers. Ideally, it should also determine the architecture from the ELF header, and choose an appropriate compression filter accordingly. - Josh Triplett -- System Information: Debian Release: lenny/sid APT prefers unstable APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental') Architecture: amd64 (x86_64) Kernel: Linux 2.6.26-1-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores) Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash Versions of packages p7zip depends on: ii libc6 2.7-16 GNU C Library: Shared libraries ii libgcc1 1:4.3.2-1 GCC support library ii libstdc++6 4.3.2-1 The GNU Standard C++ Library v3 p7zip recommends no packages. Versions of packages p7zip suggests: ii p7zip-full 4.58~dfsg.1-1 7z and 7za file archivers with hig -- no debconf information -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
