Re: Multiarch in Debian unstable
* Steve Langasek <vorlon@debian.org> [110628 08:42]:
> > On the downside, files which are the same would be duplicated, but since a
> > vast majority of libraries use #ifdefs instead of modifying the files, the
> > waste would be infinitessimally low.
>
> I don't know what this "vast majority of libraries" is. Most of the
> libraries I work on have at least one header that's autogenerated from
> configure at build time.
Comparing all lib[abc]*-dev packages being found both in amd64
(little-endian,64bit) and sparc (big endian,32bit, quite some solaris
compatibility crap) in unstable that contain a /usr/include:
328 packages
295 no differences
That means 90% of the packages in this sample have the same
/usr/include in this two cases. Even assuming that for some high
percentage of those packages comparing two vastly different architectures
like amd64 and sparc is not enough, that would still be quite a
majority.
And taking a cursory look at the packages that differ, I think for most
getting rid of those changes would actually improve the code quality of
them. (Though for some packages that might mean acknowledging it is no
longer 1998).
Bernhard R. Link
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