Re: Opteron support in dpkg
Hi!
On Thu, Jun 03, 2004 at 11:23:13AM -0400, Stephen Frost <sfrost@snowman.net> wrote...
> Personally, my preference is to go with whatever produces:
>
> dpkg --print-architecture = amd64
> dpkg --print-gnu-architecture = x86-64 (or x86_64, whichever is right)
This seems to be the solution most people could agree with.
To summarize some arguments:
x86-64
+ no problem with .deb filename
+ original codename of the architecture
- does not match kernel
- does not match arch string (that's originally why everybody started
using _ instead of -)
- current archive needs to be totally redone
- no other distro uses it
[+ Debian will be the ONLY distro supporting x86-64 ;-)]
x86_64
+ used by kernel (x86_64)
+ matches arch string (x86_64-linux-gnu)
+ used by SuSE, Fedora
- potential problems with .deb filenames (apt and dpkg seem OK, how
about wanna-build and the archive maintenance scripts ?)
- current archive needs to be totally redone
amd64
+ no filename or delimitor problems
+ used by Gentoo and Mandrake
+ current archive and patches can be used
- might in the future confuse users of Intel (or via or transmeta...)
more than x86(-|_)64
The "credit for AMD" argument should not be considered. That discussion
leads nowhere. It was a dishonest decision by Intel to invent a name
of it's own, but our architecture name should be mostly decided on technical
merits and uniformity with other distros, so that our users will have the
least trouble deciding which architecture is the one they want. Intel will
most likely never mention AMD64, or even x86(-|_)64 on any end-user-visible
documentation and PCs sold with CPUs supporting the architecture will not
have any of them in it's advertising. The uninformed user is screwed anyway.
Considering this, the decision should be between x86_64 and amd64. x86-64
matches neither kernel,arch string nor what other distros call their
port.
--
Oliver M. Bolzer
oliver@gol.com
GPG (PGP) Fingerprint = 621B 52F6 2AC1 36DB 8761 018F 8786 87AD EF50 D1FF
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