Re: 32-bit architectures (was: Request to reconsider i386 (x86) port for Debian 13)

[Wouter Verhelst <wouter@debian.org>]

(sorry for the late reply)

On Sun, Aug 17, 2025 at 01:35:08PM +0100, Simon McVittie wrote:
> If the 32-bit ports are going to survive, then the affected packages either
> need to be cross-compiled from a 64-bit architecture (which is not something
> that Debian has traditionally done and not something that our autobuilder
> network really supports),

This is actually very close to how the m68k port has been surviving (in
debian-ports) for the past half decade at least: a combination of
fully-virtualized buildd machines (i.e., buildd running in an aranym VM)
and multiarch/qemu-user buildd chroots (i.e., buildd running on an amd64
machine with qemu-user and m68k packages installed inside a chroot).

Migrating from "qemu-user buildd chroot" to "buildd chroot with
qemu-user and cross gcc" is a small step really, and should allow to do
what you suggest above.

Whether this is desireable is, of course, a wholly different question
that I'm explicitly not trying to answer here :)

-- 
     w@uter.{be,co.za}
wouter@{grep.be,fosdem.org,debian.org}

I will have a Tin-Actinium-Potassium mixture, thanks.