F21 System Wide Change: lbzip2 as default bzip2 implementation

[drago01]

On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 11:39 PM, Chris Adams <linux at cmadams.net> wrote:
> Once upon a time, Mikolaj Izdebski <mizdebsk at redhat.com> said:
>> lbzip2 does not (at least not yet) provide interfaces of libbz2 library,
>> only command line tools.  This Change does *not* affect users of libbz2.
>
> Is there enough of a gain to the system to only partially replace a core
> program like this (especially with alternatives)?  This seems like a
> case where either we get a "new and improved and replaces the old"
> version (where the new one just obsoletes the old one, such as the
> jpeg-turbo change), or just leave it alone.
>
> Please understand, I don't mean to "attack" you or your code.  I just
> think adding a second implementation of a core utility like bzip2 is a
> bad idea unless there is a significant gain.  If there's a point where
> lbzip2 can fully replace bzip2 (so all CLI and API uses), and there are
> good benefits, then Fedora should just replace the old implementation
> with a new one.


Well the change says " multi-threaded operation for both compression
and decompression, with almost linear scalability" linear scalability
means speed ups on the range of 2-8x on current desktop / laptop
systems.
Which I'd call a "significant gain" ;)