Re: Upcoming Debian multiarch support (amd64, sparc64, s390x, mips64) [affects sarge slightly]

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

Martin Pitt <martin@piware.de> writes:

> Hi!
> 
> On 2004-01-12 14:43 +0100, Josselin Mouette wrote:
> > Am I the only one to think the whole /lib64 idea is fundamentally
> > broken? We already have ia64 without this. We can build a very similar
> > system for amd64, introducing a new arch. Then, ship a few 32-bit
> > compatibility libraries for 32-bit proprietary software.
> 
> If the only reason for not introducing a new architecture for amd64 is
> to conserve archive space, then why this rather low-level problem
> cannot be handled on a low level? Maybe by using hardlinks for
> packages that don't differ on the two arches) instead of breaking the
> current Debian package system and the LSB? 

The support to install packages from binary-i386 on amd64 is all there
already. binary-amd64/Packages contains the recompiled and biarch
packages and you can add the normal debian i386 repository for
everything else (due to glibc version conflicts [old glibc on amd64]
atm that only works for woody though).

> Additionaly, if you look at the fact that the number of packages in
> Debian grows exponentially, the linear growth of ~ 10% more archive
> space for a new architecture should not be much relevant in the
> future.

Its 10% grows (that an extreme number) on the number of packages, not
on the size of the mirror. Its just a redistribution of files.

> OTOH, isn't that exactly the same situation on sparc64? IIRC you
> can excute 32 bit programs on the 64 bit kernel (and, in fact, will do
> so most of the time since most packages are 32 bit). I don't know
> about the sparc64 very much, how is the problem solved there?

Very much but reversed.

On amd64 one would like 64 bit for speed reasons, on
sparc/mips/s390/ppc one would like 32 bit. On amd64 32bit support is
wanted for binary only or unported packages. On sparc/mips/s390/ppc
one wants 64 bit for >4GB address space for huge applications like
postgresql.

MfG
        Goswin