Implemented architecure aliases (Was Re: RFC: patch to split System/Cpu in dpkg)

[Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org>]

Hi,

On Mon, Jan 24, 2005 at 04:50:26AM +0100, Robert Millan wrote:
> Please have a look at this patch I just sent to dpkg maintainers:
> 
>   http://people.debian.org/~rmh/patches/dpkg.diff
> 
> This should address all the concerns porters have had with limitations in dpkg
> architecture handling during the past few years.  I've tested it extensively
> (tried _every_ combination I can concieve), but more testing is welcome of
> course.
> 
> Independently on wether the dpkg maintainer accepts to apply it to experimental
> branch currently, we'll have to send a proposal to ammend Policy.  I'm looking
> for Debian developers to second me on this.  Please let me know if this is the
> case.

I've sent an alternative implementation to solve this problem, that I
think is cleaner, clearer and less intrusive. It's on bugs #291939 and
#268377. The patch is available as well from:

  <http://www.hadrons.org/~guillem/patches/dpkg/>

The idea is to use architecture aliases that get expanded on package
building so this does not affect and does not need changes in tools
and infrastructure that deal with binary packages.

The general form of the aliases is:

	<kernel>-any
	any-<cpu>

For more details please refer to the bug reports above.

Comments and support for this alternative implementation welcome.

regards,
guillem