Re: Future of multiarch?
Since my point of view, the separated /bin is not so elegant, since
both mozilla are actually two aplications they need to be two
different files, they can share the same /bin directory, and in the
last end we hope all the system work with only one mozilla.
I hope the work is to make or preserve the property of beign
transparent between architectures
On 4/9/05, Thomas Steffen <steffen.list.account@gmail.com> wrote:
> 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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