id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	priority	milestone	component	version	severity	resolution	keywords	cc
5785	Use kernel base+patch file	thomas	lfs-book	"The kernel sources are provided either as a full tarball (which we are using currently) or as a base tarball plus a patch file. That is for example as base `linux-6.16.tar.xz` and the patch file `patch-6.16.1.xz`.

Since kernel updates occur pretty frequent (weekly?), using the patch file variant would reduce the download size as it will not be required to retrieve over 150MB over and over again. The patch size of 6.16.1 is actually 200KB (of course increasing from version to version).

In addition to saving some bytes on disk its a variant we do not have on any other package. I think it may be interesting to see how frequent updates can be handled without constantly retrieving the whole package file. 

Editing impact on the book is marginal - i've implemented that variant in the MLFS book as a POC.

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There are also patch files from x.y.z to x.y.(z+1). They are pretty small but using them would require to really use all of them, you cannot skip one. It does only make sence if you have a kernel source dir constantly unpacked and you want to follow every single release. Not partical for LFS, imho."	enhancement	closed	normal	13.0	Book	git	normal	fixed