Description
What is your suggestion?
I'd like to propose that conan cache save be updated to store content within a subdirectory of the generated archive. Initial off-the-cuff thoughts for subdir name would be conan, pkgs, or something anywhere along those lines. The name of the directory isn't as important as the purpose.
Having Conan content isolated within a directory would enable usage like we've started doing of embedding some additional archive-related content for user reference. We've included conan graph HTML reports, a README, LICENSE, and similar guidance for what the archive itself represents and how to use it. This has been helpful for inter-organization exchange of archives where most users aren't (and shouldn't be) familiar with internals of Conan in order to use it. Having all of the raw packages listed at top-level makes it hard to identify these additional guiding files we add.
As noted in #18234 (comment), migration would need to be considered for cross-version compatibility even though an experimental feature.
For users not using the archive-level file additions (most users, it's an unofficial abuse of the structure), nothing noticeable would change other than a single top-level directory within the archive.
As an illustration, I'm suggesting switching from the current layout:
conan_cache_save.tgz/
├─ apkg1111111/
├─ b/
│ ├─ apkg1111111
│ ├─ foo_c2222222
│ ├─ foo_d3333333
├─ foo_c2222222/
├─ foo_d2222222
├─ pkglist.json
to the following layout:
conan_cache_save.tgz/
├─ conan/
│ ├─ apkg1111111/
│ ├─ b/
│ │ ├─ apkg1111111
│ │ ├─ foo_c2222222
│ │ ├─ foo_d3333333
│ ├─ foo_c2222222/
│ │ ├─ index.css
│ │ ├─ index.js
│ ├─ foo_d2222222
│ ├─ pkglist.json
upon which we'd insert our additional files like:
conan_cache_save.tgz/
├─ conan/
│ ├─ apkg1111111/
│ ├─ b/
│ │ ├─ apkg1111111
│ │ ├─ foo_c2222222
│ │ ├─ foo_d3333333
│ ├─ foo_c2222222/
│ │ ├─ index.css
│ │ ├─ index.js
│ ├─ foo_d2222222
│ ├─ pkglist.json
├─ contents-graph.html
├─ LICENSE
├─ README.txt
Have you read the CONTRIBUTING guide?
- I've read the CONTRIBUTING guide