Subject: [bug#68242] [core-updates] Compress man pages using zstd

From: Ludovic Courtès <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2024 18:29:18 +0100

Maxim Cournoyer <[email-masked]> skribis:

> The aim is to improve the efficiency of computing the man pages database,
> which must decompress the man pages.  Zstd is faster than gzip, especially for
> decompression, and has a similar compression ratio.
>
> * gnu/packages/commencement.scm (%final-inputs): Add zstd.
> * guix/build/gnu-build-system.scm
> (compress-documentation) Update doc.
> <info-compressor, info-compressor-flags, man-compressor, man-compressor-flags>
> <man-compressor-file-extension>: New arguments.
> <compressed-documentation-extension>: Rename argument to...
> <info-compressor-file-extension>: ... this.  Add an 'extension' argument to
> the retarget-symlink nested procedure.  Use new arguments in nested
> 'maybe-compress' procedure.
>
> Change-Id: Ibaad4658f8e5151633714d263d9198f56d255020

That’s a great idea, LGTM!

Do you have figures on the space savings of a package with many man
pages such as gnutls:doc or openssl:doc?

Thanks,
Ludo’.