Package managers based on version control

Question

linux

Good day!
Recently, the thought came to mind, why not build a package manager on the principle of a version control system? But I don’t even know how good this idea is, I would like to discuss it with the community. Perhaps I don’t know something, from the capabilities of package managers.

Speaking on an example:
There is some kind of game noname . This game has two types of packages: noname and noname-data , the first contains executable files, and the second contains all multimedia information: sounds, textures, models, etc. Let's assume the package is noname-dataweighs ~600 megabytes. And one fine day the game was updated in the repository after the developers changed 10 textures, 5 models... let's say 10% of all files... But to update, you need to re-download 600 megabytes, not 60 of those that have been changed.

Well, why not, when updating a package, the server does not send only the changed data and a “patch file” to the user, which describes the changes, thereby reducing the amount of traffic and update time? Why not implement a similar update system in the x-distribution? Does this method have its drawbacks, apart from the increase in server load (when calculating the difference in files, although I think this information can be stored statically, not calculated every time)?

Answer 1

Gent has such a thing as getdelta. Just downloads only what has changed (http://ru.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/HOWTO_%D0%AD%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0% B8%D1%8F_%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%84%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0_%D1%81_%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%BC% D0%BE%D1%89%D1%8C%D1%8E_deltup)
Moreover, in funtoo (a branch of gentoo) even the package list itself is in git, and it can be rolled back to any number and put a package of any version

Answer 2

in the topic article on a hacker about binary patches. contains a description of all of the above and a couple more systems for debian-based distros.
www.xakep.ru/post/57730/