Re: Need help with Multi-Arch in systemd

[Josh Triplett <josh@joshtriplett.org>]

Helmut Grohne wrote:
> So you made me thinking, can we somehow implement this with our
> current spec? The most important requirements seem to be:
>
>  * libsystemd-shared.so and /sbin/systemd need to reside in the same
>    binary package.
>  * It shall be possible to depend on libsystemd-shared.so for a
>    particular architecture.
>  * A dependency on "systemd" should request a native systemd.
>
> Now let's do something stupid. Rename systemd to systemd-core (taking
> all files with it, please refrain from discussing the name unless you
> seriously consider doing this). Mark it Multi-Arch: allowed. Add a new,
> empty binary package systemd. It is Multi-Arch: foreign and depends on
> systemd-core:any. This approach would technically satisfy all three
> requirements, but it feels a little crazy to me.

This seems like a rather reasonable approach, actually. It's a little
unusual, but it has all the advantages of making systemd multi-arch
aware while not creating the trap of making a `systemd` dependency do
the wrong thing, because `systemd` has the right multi-arch dependency
on `systemd-core:any`.

The handful of packages that really do need a same-arch dependency on
systemd (those that are part of systemd itself and need
libsystemd-shared) could depend on `systemd-core` directly, and
everything else can continue depending on systemd with no transition
required. And there's only one trip through NEW, once.