PPR FAQ

Are not patches inferior to full source tarballs?	Tarballs created by sdelta3 patches are binary identical to full uncompressed source tarballs. Therefore, sdelta3 patches are not inferior in any sense.
I can not verify a signature on sdelta3 patches.	When signatures are available for source tarballs the PPR verifies them before creating a patch file. Source tarballs generated from sdelta3 patch files can be re-compressed to verify a signature for that source tarball.
Why not use diff and patch?	diff and patch do not create binary identical source tarballs while sdelta3 does.
Why not use xdelta or some other program instead?	7za compressed sdelta3 patches were compared to equivilently compressed patches by many other patching/dictionary compression programs. While the sdelta3 and p7zip combination continues to produce the smallest compressed patches we continue to use them.
An empty patch file was available for download. What happened? Where is the compressed patch file?	Empty files with filename extention .sd3 and no compression extention indicate that the server has completed that patch attempt. Compressed patches have the extention .tar.sd3.7z. If no compressed patch file exists then the server was unable to fulfill the patch request at this time. Of course the request can be made later when no empty patch file wtih extention .sd3 is displayed on the server.
Can I be emailed upon completion of my patch request, please?	Absolutely! Configure the sdreq client to have the server send an email notification when your patches are ready for download.
I am far too lazy to download the patches. How about sending them to me, please?	Sure! Configure the sdereq client to have patches uploaded to the ftp server, account, password, and directory that you specify. sdelta patch will not be emailed to you. Email protocol is not efficently designed for transmitting binary data.
Since I have no old source please upload the new source instead?	When a patch can not be requested p7zip optimally compressed source tarballs can usually be downloaded instead.
I have old sources. I have no idea where to get new sources.	The PPR knows where to acquire source tarballs. If you use the sdreq client you need only specify the new source that you want. If you make the request directly then specify the patch filename which is the combination of the old source tarball name hyphen new source tarball name and .sd3. For examples look at the patches already available for download.
Who pays for the PPR?	Kyle Sallee and Patel Aakin.
Who planned and created the PPR and sdelta?	The idea, design, and implementation of the PPR and sdelta3 was by Kyle Sallee. Porting of sdelta3 to Solaris and FreeBSD was by Pavel Gorshkov.
How does the PPR acquire sources?	The PPR downloads sources from an approved list of hosts. That way patches are constructed from unmodified software author's source tarball.
What servers are on the approved list?	Software hosted by gnu, sourceforge, gnome, and kde and probably more than half the software in most distributions are on the list. The list includes over 250,000 version specific sources.
What types of servers are automatically rejected?	Sites that do not permit direct downloading of files may be rejected, sites that require a form to be complete before downloading, sites that require a password to download, sites that require a download script to be run are all examples of software that the PPR may not provide patches for.
How can I get my servers added to the approved list?	Email it to kyle.sallee a@t gmail dot com with explanation for consideration.
A patch I wanted was not created. Why?	There are two likely possibilities: The PPR does not know where to acquire a source. A source can not yet be acquired at expected locations. Tomrrow the source may become available. Attempt the upgrade again tomorrow or at least no sooner than 1 hour from the prior request.
Please allow me to specify source download locations.	And receive patch upgrades for sysvinit generated from sources from: ftp://script.kiddies.r.us/we-own-your-box/cracked/sysvinit No chance of that! Sources are downloaded from primary distribution points and trusted hosts to ensure file integrity. Digitial signature files are also verified
How come the sdelta3 patches for linux are larger than the kernel's patch/diff patches.	Although kernel source files change rarely the tarballs change greatly on each release. Typically the date stamps on all files and paths to all files are updated before the tarball is made. Consequently, the new tarball has different metadata for each file. Storing all the changes in the metadata for each file in the linux source tarball requires about 150K compressed.
Where is the request HTML form?	A web form for requests would be incredibly weak and teadious to complete for every request when compared to using the sdreq client. Please use the sdreq or other compatible client for making requests. You can upload a text file listing patches and source tarballs to request.php Omit specifiying a compression extention for patches and tarballs.