[tor-bugs] #11788 [Metrics Data Processor]: Consider providing descriptor tarballs as .tar.xz rather than .tar.bz2

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#11788: Consider providing descriptor tarballs as .tar.xz rather than .tar.bz2
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     Reporter:  karsten                 |      Owner:
         Type:  enhancement             |     Status:  new
     Priority:  normal                  |  Milestone:
    Component:  Metrics Data Processor  |    Version:
   Resolution:                          |   Keywords:
Actual Points:                          |  Parent ID:
       Points:                          |
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Comment (by wfn):

 A purely procedural/logistical thing: I wonder how many services/tools use
 the Metrics archives, and whether it makes sense to convert all
 existing/previous .tar.bz2 archives to .tar.xz. Of course as Karsten says,
 if the latter is not done, "the downside is that new tools will have to
 support both .tar.bz2 and .tar.xz if we don't recompress existing
 archives."

 In any case, ''quietly'' changing to .tar.xz is maybe not the way to go,
 in the sense that this should at the very least be announced. How many
 existing tools/software may rely on these Metrics archives?

 > Anything else?

 Memory usage?[1][2] Though as Nick said, `xz` memory usage seems to be
 constant / invariant to target size (depends on compression level only), I
 guess because the compression level chooses the dictionary size; and that
 is what uses the memory.

 [1]: http://pokecraft.first-
 world.info/wiki/Quick_Benchmark:_Gzip_vs_Bzip2_vs_LZMA_vs_XZ_vs_LZ4_vs_LZO
 [2]: http://linux.die.net/man/1/xz

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/11788#comment:1>
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