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Please test dpkg with multiarch support



Hello,

Guillem just released a "work-in-progress" version of dpkg that supports
multiarch to experimental (dpkg 1.16.2~wipmultiarch). Beware: There will
likely be some small "interface" changes between this version and the
version that will be released later in unstable (possibly in the output of
dpkg --get-selections, dpkg --list, maybe other commands).

Once installed, you add a supplementary architecture to your system by
doing “sudo dpkg --add-architecture <arch>” (e.g. i386 if you are on amd64, and
vice-versa). APT will automatically pick up the new architecture and start
downloading the Packages file for the new architecture (it uses dpkg
--print-foreign-architectures to know about them).

>From there on you can install packages from the "foreign" architectures
with "apt-get install foo:<arch>". Many packages will not be installable
because some of their dependencies have not yet been updated to work with
in a multiarch world (libraries must be installed in a multiarch-compliant
path so as to be co-installable, and then marked "Multi-Arch: same").
Other dependencies might need to be marked "Multi-Arch: foreign".
See http://wiki.debian.org/Multiarch/Implementation for more HOWTO-like
explanations.

Now is a good time to see if you can cross-install the packages that
you could need in such a setup and to help to convert the required
libraries.

If you discover any bug in dpkg's multiarch implementation, please
report it to the BTS (against the version 1.16.2~wipmultiarch).

That's not all, if you're a C programmer and have some good knowledge of
dpkg (or are willing to learn more of it), we would certainly benefit from
more eyes reviewing the multiarch branch. If you want to discuss some
design issues of the multiarch implementation in dpkg (or have questions
related to your review), please use debian-dpkg@lists.debian.org.

The latest version of the branch is pu/multiarch/master in Guillem's
personal repository.  I have my own version of the branch
(pu/multiarch/full) which is usually a snapshot of Guillem's branch with
my own submitted fixes.

$ git clone git://git.debian.org/dpkg/dpkg.git
$ cd dpkg
$ git remote add guillem git://git.hadrons.org/git/debian/dpkg/dpkg.git
$ git remote add buxy git://git.debian.org/~hertzog/dpkg.git
$ git fetch guillem && git fetch buxy

If you followed the instructions above, the relevant branches are thus
guillem/pu/multiarch/master and buxy/pu/multiarch/full.
Both branches are regularly rebased on top of master where Guillem merges
progressively the commits from the multi-arch branch as his review
progresses.

Cheers,
-- 
Raphaël Hertzog ◈ Debian Developer

Pre-order a copy of the Debian Administrator's Handbook and help
liberate it: http://debian-handbook.info/liberation/


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