expire and history format

[Igor Timkin]

Heath Kehoe writes:
> >Igor Timkin <ivt at gamma.ru> writes:
> >
> >> And second and main. What's about to convert history to binary format ?
> >> History has fix format line. I has pathes (not full) against
> >> current-199904XX.  Binary format will reduce CPU/disk/VM usage and
> >> simplify C code.
> 
> I would like to see this patch.

Ok, I'll make this patch and  put it on www for review and test.

> >That's definitely the future intention.  However, I want to put an API
> >interface on front of the history file before doing that so that we can
> >continue to read older history formats and to make the transition
> >smoother, as well as allow people to play with a variety of different
> >history formats.
> 
> I agree that a history API is the way to go, but we should at least make
> Igor's patch available (say, in contrib/) because it's a good idea and

I'll plan add option --enable-binary-history to configure script
(we have --enable-tagged-hash) and convertor between text and binary
history. With this patch inn will be full compatible with current
version.

> provides an immediate benefit.  For example, on my server it would decrease

I hope :). All my servers is oveloaded. newsfeed.gamma.ru has ~30% idle
with 1G RAM, two PIII-450 and seven U160 and U2W disks on 3 SCSI channels.

> this size of the history file from 805 MB to 497 MB.
> 
> >
> >I'd be glad to see someone work on that; I haven't had a lot of time to
> >get it started, unfortunately.  :/
> >
> 
> I may be able to work on the history API soon.

Fine :)