Stefan Monnier <[email protected]> writes:

>>>>>> We'd also prefer a more common format, e.g. xz instead of lzip (which
>>>>>> isn't supported by our standard unpacker), but this is a minor issue.
>>>> This might also be difficult due to storage issues.
>>> I find `lzip` to be much better behaved (which probably just means "more
>>> like the other tools with which I'm familiar"), which is why I chose it.
>>> I think it's also a bit closer philosophically to GNU.
>> How so?  Their command lines act the same.

Along these lines, note that the xz(1) manpage even says:

  In addition, decompression of the .lz format used by lzip is
  supported.

I am not familiar with the Gentoo build system, even if they do not have
lzip installed, they should be able to just use xz on our .lz files?

> Interesting.  I should have written "found" rather than "find".
> That was many years ago when I was shopping for a gzip replacement, so
> maybe I misremember the details (a quick web-search suggests, maybe
> I was swayed also by some of the design/benchmark documents, that
> suggested the author had designed the tool with a lot of care).
> I've since used lzip for "everything" without looking back, really.

Perhaps you encountered https://www.nongnu.org/lzip/xz_inadequate.html?

> (Non)GNU ELPA has been using lzip for its old tarballs for the last
> 5 years and this is the first time someone complains about it being too
> obscure, so I'm not sure it's worth the trouble of changing.  I think
> I'd be more willing to consider a change to something newer/better than
> lzip, rather than something whose only significant advantage is being
> more popular.

Considering the above, I am inclined to agree.  But I think the question
remains why we wouldn't want to provide a .lz'ed archive for the newest
release of a package?

>         Stefan

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