Hello, support for bzip2 compressed package lists would save a non-trivial amount of bandwith. Packages.bz2 is usually 20..30% smaller than Packages.gz, same applies to Sources.[gz|bz2] This should not be ignored. bzip2 support will not only reduce bandwith usage on the Debian servers, but on the clients too. IMHO this is really important for clients with low bandwidth and/or metered connections, i.e. modem or ISDN. (Think developing countries, eastern europe, or simply many people not living in a big city.)
After I reviewed the patch proposed at http://lists.debian.org/deity/2004/02/msg00146.html und looked up what is really going on inside acquire-item.cc et al, I suggest to add an option to apt.conf to select the compression method used. An alternate approach would be to skip the extension altogether, set an appropriate Accept header prefering bzip2 for the HTTP method and let the server (i.e. via mod_negotiation if Apache) decide what to deliver. (This is only possible when using HTTP, but on FTP an file, the current logic could be used, so there would be no problems.) It would be really great if somebody could give this issue a hgher priority! :-) Best regards, Holger Spielmann
