[Gnu-arch-users] Re: [ANNOUNCEMENT] /Arch/ embraces `git'

[Stefan Monnier]

> It might be that as long as you provide exactly the same inputs
> compression is deterministic across all platforms (at least for a
> specific compressor, like gzip).

> Having the handle fixed at 160 bits also seems limiting. It ties the
> entire archive format into exactly one hash.

Agreed.  I'd suggest to change things slightly:

   file name: <hashtype>,<hash>,<length>
   content: uncompressed binary data, prefixed by some ASCII meta-data.

Of course, you can compress those things as:

   <hashtype>,<hash>,<length>.gz

Now maybe the reason why it's not done this way is the desire to be
able to read the ASCII meta-data without having to decompress anything.

I'm not sure how important this is, and whether or not it could be
circumvented by putting that meta-data in the file name, for example as
an extension:

   <hashtype>,<hash>,<length>.mp3


        Stefan