F21 System Wide Change: lbzip2 as default bzip2 implementation

[Jaroslav Reznik]

= Proposed System Wide Change:  lbzip2 as default bzip2 implementation =
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/lbzip2

Change owner(s): Mikolaj Izdebski <mizdebsk at redhat.com>

This change aims at making lbzip2 [1] default bzip2 implementation used in 
Fedora. 

== Detailed Description ==
lbzip2 is an independent implementation of bzip2 compression tool. It provides 
interface strictly compatible with bzip2, but also adds several new features 
and improvements, such as:

* multi-threaded operation for both compression and decompression, with almost 
linear scalability,
* improved performance, even on single-core systems,
* improved extra utilities (bzdiff, bzless, bzip2recover, etc.),
* improved compatibility with gzip. 

lbzip2 is a mature project and it has been used in production for years. It is 
already packaged for Fedora and it is also available in EPEL.

The case of bzip2 and lbzip2 is an ideal candidate for usage of alternatives - 
both tools provide commands with compatible interfaces. This change proposes 
assigning higher priority to lbzip2 than to bzip2, which will effectively 
cause lbzip2 to be used instead of bzip2, if lbzip2 is installed. If for some 
reason some users don't like the change they can reconfigure alternatives 
manually and keep using bzip2. 

== Scope ==
* Proposal owners:
** make lbzip2 and bzip2 packages use alternatives for binaries and manpages 
they provide,
** set higher priority for lbzip2 in alternatives,
** identify packages which require bzip2 and port some of them to use lbzip2 
instead. 

* Other developers:
** test if their packages work with lbzip2,
** possibly adjust spec files to require or build-require lbzip2 instead of 
bzip2. 

* Release engineering: no action required. 
* Policies and guidelines: no change required. 

[1] http://lbzip2.org/
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