Re: Concerns about AMD64 port

[Marc Bevand <marc.bevand@smartjog.com>]

Tony Hoyle wrote:
> Stephen Frost wrote:
>  > That's why you're likely to have to rebuild everything for amd64 after
>  > the changes to the packaging system are made which is why some people
>  > don't see much point in a 64bit-only native Debian system now.
>
> With that example you're going to have to rebuild every package for i386 
> as well.  Fundamental changes to the packaging system will require that 
> anyway.
>
> TBH I don't give a crap about /lib64 myself - a pure 64bit debian would 
> do fine.  I want 64bit because I develop software that needs testing in 
> 64bit... if gentoo actually worked properly I'd be using that now (they 
> just compile everything 64bit to /lib then have a symlink to /lib64 for 
> compatibility, which sounds like the best way.).

What about using /lib for 64-bit libraries and /lib32 for 32-bit
libraries ?

This would allow a nice compatibility between 64-bit/32-bit systems and
pure 64-bit ones: to convert a 64-bit/32-bit system to a pure 64-bit
one, just do "rm -rf /lib32". Choosing to use /lib64 will lead to
incompatibility between these systems...

Legacy 32-bit apps trying to load libraries from /lib could be
redirected to /lib32 with the help of a small hack (done by an
LD_* environment variable, the dynamic loader, or even the kernel).

--
Marc Bevand