Re: I need explanation on the design of debian-amd64.

[Goswin von Brederlow <brederlo@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de>]

bob@proulx.com (Bob Proulx) writes:

> Goswin von Brederlow wrote:
>> bob@proulx.com (Bob Proulx) writes:
>> > But if 'dchroot' is configured with the ia32-linux chroot then you can
>> > just say "dchroot apt-get install foobar" to install a 32bit package.
>> 
>> dchroot will only work if you have a chroot.
>
> Yes.  In particular it won't work if you are using ia32-libs.  But
> personally I think ia32-libs is the wrong direction to go.  I believe
> the chroot method to be the better alternative.
>
>> And if you do why bother with /emul?
>
> Having /emul allows me to transparently run binaries outside of the
> chroot.  All of the world is not openoffice.org-bin or mozilla-firefox
> packages.  The chroot works great for those 32-bit applications.  But
> having /emul allows me to run /net/ia32fileserver/cadroot/bin binaries
> on my 64-bit system completely transparently.  Having the chroot
> allows me to install and upgrade 32-bit binaries easily.  Having a
> 64-bit base system allows me to install and upgrade 64-bit binaries
> trivially.  The best of all worlds.
>
> In summary, I am using the chroot to manage /emul.
>
> Bob

The problem is that many programs have data files in /usr/share or
/usr/lib/package or even config in /etc/. All those files will be
inside the chroot instead of outside when you run the program outside.

So the number of programs you can run outside is somewhat limited.

I see the point of having a chroot to install lib packages and then
install binaries (with --force-arch for example) outside the charoot
or something. But in general it doesn't always work. Not something for
the faint of heart.

MfG
        Goswin