Could we add last minute minimal support for pkg:arch?

[Goswin von Brederlow <goswin-v-b@web.de>]

Hi,

I'm wondering if it would be possible to add minimal support for
pkg:arch, as needed for full multiarch later on, to dpkg in squeeze.

By minimal support I mean the following changes:

- ':' is allowed in package names. Might be restricted to package names
in dependencies. Naming a package foo:i386 is invalid but Depends:
foo:i386 is valid.

- pkg:arch is preserved in the status and available file.

- pkg:<native arch> is treated as just pkg internally.

- pkg:<foreign arch> is left as is and thus won't ever be fullfilled. No
such package will exist in squeeze dpkg.

Using the simple changes above would make arch:pkg work for uni-arch
configurations. Meaning squeeze+1 could use the arch:pkg syntax without
the packages becoming uninstallable with stable dpkg allowing for better
multiarch support without another release cycle.

If you are willing to consider adding this to squeeze at this late a
date then I would be willing to write a patch along the 4 points above.
I believe the change can be done with minimal changes to the parser
only. The dependency resolver wouldn't be touched.

Note that apt 0.8.0 has added (some) support for pkg:arch already.

MfG
        Goswin