p7zip package should be installed by default

[®om]

I didn't find a way to post a "wish" (this bug report doesn't concern a bug), I apologize if this is not the right place.

I think p7zip should be installed by default in next ubuntu release (intrepid).
It allows compressing/decompressing in .7z format.
This (open-source) format is quite impressive, for example on a folder with a lot of files :
tar.gz : 776Mb
tar.bz2 : 768Mb
.7z : 412Mb

People can for the moment install it easily : sudo apt-get install p7zip
But installing it by default would be a good thing, because people could click on a .7z and open it without installing anything.

Without that package, each time we want to send or post on a forum a .7z, we have to say "install this thing to open".

What do you think about it?

[Matt Neilson (ichthyoboy)]

Changed target package to p7zip.

[Conn O Griofa (psyke83)]

I also highly recommend this proposal.

The p7zip archive resides in the universe repository, but I don't see any problems with it getting moved to main - 7z is based on the LZMA algorithm which has no patent encumbrances (it's the p7zip-full archive that would be inappropriate for main, as it includes RAR support).

The archive is currently 337KB - and while I understand that every single KB is precious on the Live CD, let me point out that the inclusion of p7zip by default could accelerate the adoption of the dpkg-lzma[1] blueprint (that would yield a saving of 175mb on the alternative image), and improved changes of Ubuntu's SquashFS image being transitioned to LZMA, when official support arrives in the near future.

I have also filed a related bug[2] to get p7zip-full included in the ubuntu-restricted-extras repository (which serves wider needs than the scope of this bug). There's also an ongoing discussion[3] in the development section of Ubuntu Forums.

References:
[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/dpkg-lzma
[2] https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/379236
[3] http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1165142

[Col1023 (ccullchuchk)]

Most new users to Ubuntu are moving from windows, or still using windows and thus may need to transfer files between operating systems, and the FAT32 file system is often used to make this easy.

FAT32 has a filesile limit of 4GB, so if you have a huge archive >4GB, then 7z would be very useful since it supports archive splitting.

With digital photo and video collections growing all the time, archives >4GB are more likely to be created.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

I don't think a bug report is the appropriate method of requesting inclusion of a package by default, and certainly not against the package itself. This is best voiced on the ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list, and has come up several times in the past. Unfortunately the space on the livecd is limited and it has been decided that it is not worth kicking something else out to make room for p7zip, especially when it is only an apt-get install away if you do wish to use it.