.sce extension queries

[nitram]

Sorry for basic questions. Diligently followed TC forum for >1 year, including dCore, and don't recall seeing this information.

1) Much of dCore revolves around 'sce', such as *.sce extensions and sce-import. What does it stand for - super core extension? Not even sure about .tcz extensions, always thought of them as tiny core zip?

2) dCore includes mksquashfs and unsquashfs, anything special to know about repacking an sce extension in regards to permissions, etc? For example, trimming Fluxbox of unused styles or documentation files.

3) If two different sce extensions share a same dependency, say GTK2 for example, the shared dependency is packed into each .sce extension (doubling required storage space). But when these extensions are loaded into RAM at runtime, the shared dependency files need only be copied once (ie. no doubling up of RAM usage). Accurate?

Edit:
4) /tce/import/debs can be safely deleted once the sce extension is built. The only value in leaving debs on the drive is to minimize download bandwidth should they be required to build another extension?
tc@box:/mnt/sdb4/tce$ sce-debpurge --help
Illegal option --

[curaga]

TCE was Tiny Core Extension, TCZ stands for TC Compressed.

[sm8ps]

Nitram, I believe your question 3 is answered in the following thread
http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,18593.msg113802.html
I have a feeling that quite a few of the posts there are relevant to your inquiry.

Regarding question 2 I cannot give a complete answer but there is a wiki section about creating an extension on your own. Maybe that gives you some additional information.
http://wiki.tinycorelinux.net/dcore:locale_in_ub-dcore

From what I understood at the time, sce-debpurge removes stale Debian and dCore packages, that is, packages which are not referenced by any extension. So seems to be no need for options and the --help option is realized by your friendly forum. 
http://wiki.tinycorelinux.net/dcore:handling_extensions?s[]=sce&s[]=debpurge#sce-debpurge

[nitram]

tcz = Tiny Core Compressed. OK will continue to think of them as Tiny Core zipped.

Just read reference to self contained *.sce, so unless someone can clarify sce = Self Contained Extension?

Thanks for the links sm8ps. Modifying and repacking a custom *.sce extension doesn't sound too complicated, similar to a *.tcz. Didn't see mention of file permissions, probably same as a *.tcz, will play around as time permits. Digging through the directory structure of a simple extension like bsdgames-nonfree.sce in /tmp/tcloop/bsdgames-nonfree/* appears very complex,  however, so i have much to learn. The extension is 4.7mb in size, very large compared to building a similar rogue extension in regular TC, presumably because it's a self-contained extension.

Last 3 posts here make query #3 clear as mud Will stick with the impression that just more disk space is needed with a negligible difference in runtime performance and RAM usage.
http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,18593.msg113802.html

Regarding deleting contents of /tce/import/debs, i've done this before without consequence on previus tests although obviously the deb files needed to be re-downloaded when installing another extension that required it. If anyone can clarify great, otherwise will keep deleting debs on my tiny test partition.

Feel like i'm going though the same exploratory learning process you did sm8ps. Thanks for your wiki contributions. Seems dCore is quite useable on a day-to-day basis and any documentation really helps us new users figure things out. Unfortunately the more i read the more questions i have

[sm8ps]

Forgot about your question 4), sorry! Indeed that is my understanding as well. Since extensions are self contained (I believe I have read that somewhere too), the same package may be used multiple times. So keeping them around does make sense unless hard-disk space was in the megabytes range.

I am not aware of any book-keeping on the available packages other than looking in the directory. So deleting them seems perfectly safe. The wiki does  (very unsurprisingly) say so, too. 
http://wiki.tinycorelinux.net/dcore:handling_extensions#tce

You are welcome for the wiki pages; glad they are read! Contributions are welcome, also in form of questions.

PS: If disk-space is a concern then one may want to check out the article on extension strategies.

[Jason W]

I added the -h and --help option to sce-debpurge.  Uploaded to the latest RC.

[nitram]

Thanks Jason for adding sce-debpurge help. Will update to latest RC as dCore changes frequently

Thanks again sm8ps. Will work through wiki tonight. Don't remember seeing FAQ section, which would be very helpful. As a new user don't feel comfortable updating wiki myself but if OK will PM some FAQs and preliminary answers for your review/upload as time permits.

[sm8ps]

FAQ is indeed a good idea. Would you please help in compiling a list? My impression is that your approach will naturally lead you to the right questions and probably has already. Technical questions of course can and should be discussed here in the forum. Though maybe you have stumbled over some "simple" (in hindsight) questions. Such would be good candidates. I have opened a new thread for these purposes.
Cheers!
sm