dpkg-cross knows which architectures are big endian or little endian,
but only indirectly via the cross-config.$arch files which it installs
to support autotools.
The TDeb proposal needs a way of determining the value to pass to the
(undocumented) 'msgfmt --endianness {biglittle}' option. {bug filed} I
have one eye on em_installtdeb becoming a part of debhelper in the long
term so it does not currently depend on any cross support code.
The whole idea of crossbuilding TDebs has implications for translator
uploads too - translators can't be expected to upload packages for other
architectures - so some form of autobuild support will be needed from
whatever debhelper component does the work and each Emdebian repository
would need it's own locale-arch branch.
Options:
1. Parse /etc/dpkg-cross/cross-config.arm in em_installtdeb - when
dpkg-cross finally merges into dpkg, the location can be updated. This
will probably add another perl module dependency but not much else.
Seems a bit of a hack though.
2. Implement 'dpkg-cross -a $ARCH --get-endian' that simply outputs big
or little to STDOUT. This could involve some duplication within
dpkg-cross and we would have to ensure that this option also gets merged
into dpkg. This option is a little limited in case we need other output
for other purposes later, requiring an option for each one.
3. A separate table in em_installtdeb - my least favourite option
because of the obvious duplication.
endianness is probably a speed issue rather than a "will not work"
issue.
--
Neil Williams
=============
http://www.data-freedom.org/
http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/
http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: This is a digitally signed message part