Future of multiarch?
After installing both a 32bit system and a 64bit system on my AMD64
machine, I feel like a more comprehensive multiarch approach is
needed. AMD64 is a unique architecture, and it brings some problems to
the surface that have not been so pressing with other architectures.
In general, I agree with the proposal on
http://www.linuxbase.org/futures/ideas/multiarch/, but I think it is
missing a crucial step: /bin also needs to be separated. Many
commercial package already have directories like bin/i386, bin/sparc,
bin/ppc and bin/win32, so that you can do one network installation for
all platforms.
Why do I think this is essential? I think there are three reasons.
The first reason is practical requirements. I like to run a 64bit
mozilla, because it is blinding fast. But since there is no flash
plugin, I have the occasional need for a 32bit mozilla. In the
multiarch proposal, there is no way to do this. Or rather there are
two: you can compile two mozilla packages, or you can install a chroot
environment (in addition to multiarch!). Both solution are so ugly and
inefficient that I would not advocate them. But as soon as you split
up /bin, the problem disappears, and mozilla-browser_i386 and
mozilla-browser_amd64 can coexist.
Obviously, this requires dpkg to sort packages both by name and by
architecture. This is a significant change, but it also brings benefit
number two:
The package handling becomes easier. Now, we have binaries and shared
files separated, e.g. into xemacs21-common_all and xemacs21-bin_i386.
As soon as dpkg understand architectures, both could be named
xemacs21: xemacs21_all and xemacs21_i386.
Benefit number three is rather minor: a system installation can be
shared between several architectures. Of course, most people don't
have too many architectures yet. But with x86_64, this will change:
the standard user will have two architecture, and the power user may
have more.
Any comments? Is there a place where multiarch is actively discussed?
Or is there even an example distribution that does something similar?
Thomas
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