[[!template id=project

title="Efficient Package Distribution"

contact="[jkoshy](mailto:jkoshy@NetBSD.org)"

mentors="""
[Joseph Koshy](mailto:jkoshy@NetBSD.org)
"""

category="userland"
difficulty="medium"
duration="350h"

description="""
Implement efficient binary package updates by patching prior releases instead of downloading large packages afresh - please see: [(jkoshy.net) Efficient Package Distribution](https://jkoshy.net/projects/efficient-package-distribution.html)

Primary milestones:

- Define the patching protocol between the package manager client (i.e., **pkgin**) and the Patch server.
- Implement the 'Patch Server', defaulting to current behavior when binary patches are missing.
- Add patch protocol support to the **pkgin** package management client.
- On the 'Patch Server', implement a pipeline to generate binary patches whenever new package releases are added to it.

Nice to have:

- Add file-format-specific (i.e., ELF-, JPEG-, PNG- specific) binary patch generation.
"""
]]

[[!tag status:active]]
[[!tag gsoc]]
[[!tag gsoc350h]]