Re: Architecture: all + M-A: foreign

[Helmut Grohne <helmut@subdivi.de>]

On Thu, Dec 06, 2012 at 02:05:13AM -0600, Peter Samuelson wrote:
> 
> In bug #695229, I noted that an Architecture: all package really should
> be Multi-Arch: foreign.  This led to an IRC discussion between Goswin,
> Steve L. and me in which I formulated the proposal:
> 
>     If a package is 'Architecture: all', and all its dependencies are
>     'Multi-Arch: foreign' (including the case where there are no
>     dependencies), this package should implicitly be treated as
>     'Multi-Arch: foreign' as well.

I ask you not to use this proposal for the following reasons:

 * Given a package it is now much harder to see whether it is tagged M-A
   or not. Especially you can no longer determine the tagging by simple
   examination of package lists.
 * Changing one package from Arch:all to Arch:any suddenly can break
   another package. An effect that one might not expect.
 * If for some reason the package is actually not M-A:foreign there is
   no way to overrule the implicit decision besides turning the package
   to Arch:any or introducing a new artificial Arch:any dependency.

As a counter proposal I would like to ask whether such an implicit
header could be added by debhelper (at a high enough compatibility
level) by default. The main advantages I see that we don't have to
modify dpkg, apt, aptitude and probably more tools and that my above
arguments are invalidated as well. That said I have no implementation to
showcase.

Maybe the problem also solves itself after extending dh-make? ;-)

Helmut