Re: binaries for different architectures in debian packages
Norbert Preining <preining@logic.at> writes:
> Dear DDs!
>
> [Please Cc me]
>
> I am one of the contributers to the TeXlive project and we are in the
> process of packaging texlive as debian packages. Herein some questions
> have arisen, the most prominent ATM is:
> Are there any facilities to put binaries of different architectures
> into debian packages?
> Background: TeXlive is compiled for several different arch/os
> combinations, while the data (texmf trees) can be shared between
> all of them. We want the user to allow the exporting of the
> texlive directory (via nfs and/or smb) and other clients to
> use texlive straight ahead.
> ATM we have binaries for alpha-linux, i386-freebsd4.10,
> i386-freebsd5.0, i386-linux, mips-irix6.5, powerpc-aix4.3.3.0,
> powerpc-darwin6.8, sparc-solaris2.7, sparc64-linux, win32 and
> x86_64-linux.
>
> Best would be (if this is allowed according to the policy) to put
> everything under
> /usr/share/texlive/
> where there are
> .../bin/<arch>-<os>/
> .../texmf (trees, various)
> .../man
> and put symlinks from /usr/bin/xyz to
> /usr/share/texlive/bin/<arch>-<os>/xyz.
>
> This way sharing the texlive directory allows easy integration into
> other clients, and texlive won't interfere with tetex (if someone is so
> crazy to install both).
>
> If someone on this list is interested I can communicate more details,
> and in fact I would be grateful to hear comments and receive some
> help in the design discussions.
>
> [Please Cc me]
>
> Thanks a lot and all the best
>
> Norbert
While Debian fully supports sharing /usr/share between differen hosts
and even different archs the actual packaging system (dpkg in
particular) does not realy support this. This a bit of a sore point in
Debian.
A more common packaging of such a project would be:
texlive-data_1.0_all.deb:
/usr/share/texlive/
/usr/share/man
...
texlive-bin_1.0_<arch>.deb (depends: texlive-data)
/usr/bin/texlive
The -data package would be build only once and used on all archs while
-bin is build for each arch. To do the actual sharing of /usr/share
between host and to manage that for dpkg you need extra
scripts/tools. Although I can't point you to any goole probably can.
MfG
Goswin
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