Re:An Unbelievable Demo
by masklinn on Friday June 04, 2021 @05:07AM
(#27391896)
> I don't understand what bsdiff does, or is.
It‘s a binary diff/patch utility.
> What are some real life use cases for it? When does a developer need such a tool?
Incrementally update binary files e.g. assets or runnable binaries instead if having to re-send the entire thing on every update so e.g. games, browsers, package managers, …
The standard diff/patch utilities are text-based and even when they do extend to binary data their algorithms and heuristics tend to be biased towards textual contents.
Bsdiff was built specifically with an eye towards executables.
It‘s a binary diff/patch utility.
> What are some real life use cases for it? When does a developer need such a tool?
Incrementally update binary files e.g. assets or runnable binaries instead if having to re-send the entire thing on every update so e.g. games, browsers, package managers, …
The standard diff/patch utilities are text-based and even when they do extend to binary data their algorithms and heuristics tend to be biased towards textual contents.
Bsdiff was built specifically with an eye towards executables.