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Re: multiarch status update



> > I don't think so. I see at least a few possible uses for this :
> >
> > 1) have a shared filesystem between machines of multiple architectures
> > 2) test your programs on architectures you don't have by using qemu
> 
> It might have its use there but it can't be simply done. The files
> from two packages must be disjunct. That was my point. Moving binaries
> into subdirs and calling them by their arch (e.g. /bin/ls/i486) would
> solve that. But something has to do this change. Either the packaging
> itself or dpkg when unpacking the deb. Both would mean a major change
> in what we (and everybody else) currently have.
> 

That could just be part of the package. Ie. unpacking the files
automatically puts them at the right place.

> Lets say we do add special dirs for binaries and let dpkg manage
> them. How would that work with old and new debs mixed together? Should
> dpkg move all binaries into subdirs on upgrade once? Should it move
> binaries into subdirs when a second arch gets installed?
> 

It is possible to have both 'normal' and 'directory' binaries at the
same time. At least AIX managed to do that, although I don't exactly
know how it did that. So this problem is probably non existant.

> Also what architecture should be called on x86_64 if both are there?
> i486 or amd64? Should that be configurable?
> 

What do you mean here ? 

> I imagine that would need kernel support to work for "#!/bin/sh" and
> the like which again raises the question of compatibility.
> 
> 

No. #!/bin/sh would just execute /bin/sh as usual.

> Weigh the gain against the work and hopefully you will see that the
> cost outweigh the gain by a lot. If you want to share a filesystem to
> i486 and amd64 systems I guess you could use a unionfs for amd64 that
> has i486 as base and then just adds the 64bit stuff. Thats probably
> far simpler and better than adding the complexity to dpkg.
> 

Well no. Because there is far more use then i486 and amd64. I don't
think dpkg needs extra changes beyond being able to install packages for
another architecture and doing the dependencies per architecture (which
all is necessary for multiarch anyway).

L & L

p2.

-- 
goa is a state of mind

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