Re: A request from the NetBSD folks [ please discuss ]
There are very important technical reasons for these decisions, not only
"nomenclature correctness" stuff. Let me explain.
On Wed, Dec 03, 2003 at 11:33:22AM -0700, Joel Baker wrote:
> > uname -s: GNU/KFreeBSD
> Uhm. I'd have to turn on my box to check
> this. I think I may have left uname -s
> alone, but changed uname -v to something
> like Debian/NetBSD.
A lot of programs tend to use uname for system identification. When they do
that, they're primarily checking for libc features.
- If uname -s prints "NetBSD", programs will assume NetBSD libc and you'll have
the most chances to compile your program on NetBSD libc.
- If uname -s prints "GNU" or "GNU/*", programs will assume GNU libc. GNU is
aka GNU/Hurd, and is already stablished. GNU/* is what we've been using so
far for our Glibc-based ports.
So you should really use "NetBSD" for uname -s.
> > config.guess triplet: <arch>-(pc|unknown)-kfreebsd<version>-gnu
> <arch>-(pc|unknown)-netbsd-gnu
And: <arch>-(pc|unknown)-knetbsd<version>-gnu
Similarly to the above, you most likely want to match netbsd* checks, while
we want to avoid them because of not having NetBSD libc.
Anyway, changing the triplets at this stage is out of question for many
reasons.
> > Debian port name: Debian GNU/KFreeBSD
> Debian GNU/NetBSD
As said before, my suggestion is Debian GNU/KLNetBSD here.
> Debian GNU NetBSD/i386
Uhm.. that (without the slash) would mean NetBSD is a GNU project.
> > Debian arch name: freebsd-<arch>
> netbsd-<arch> (specfically, -i386)
I've been using netbsd-<arch> too, for the reasons Guillem explained. Sorting
this out will require long and painful discussion with the dpkg maintainers,
but see below..
> > The Debian arch name is not consistent, because the dpkg maintainers
> > disagreed with the name change, and we didn't want to discuss it
> > endlessly, we wanted the patches integrated to have a functional system.
>
> Frankly, they're probably waiting to see who emerges from the smoke and
> rubble as actually capable of being used as a working port...
.. untill someone "emerges from the smoke", I don't find it viable to annoy
the dpkg maintainers with that. Since the DEB_HOST_ARCH is not that important,
I think we can postpone this for now.
--
Robert Millan
"[..] but the delight and pride of Aule is in the deed of making, and in the
thing made, and neither in possession nor in his own mastery; wherefore he
gives and hoards not, and is free from care, passing ever on to some new work."
-- J.R.R.T, Ainulindale (Silmarillion)
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