Re: next generation apt/dpkg-cross

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

Neil Williams <codehelp@debian.org> writes:

> On Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:49:02 +0000
> Wookey <wookey@wookware.org> wrote:
>
>> +++ Neil Williams [2010-01-19 20:30 +0000]:
>> > On Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:57:19 +0100
>> > Goswin von Brederlow <goswin-v-b@web.de> wrote:
>> > 
>> > > I've been working on a next generation apt/dpkg-cross that will
>> > > support apt, aptitude, synaptic (anything libapt based) and dpkg
>> > > directly.
>> > 
>> > Why? There is no future for apt-cross or dpkg-cross - there should
>> > be no next generation. We get through the multiarch transition and
>> > both dpkg-cross and apt-cross disappear for GOOD.
>> 
>> People keep saying this but I haven't yet seen a plan that replaces
>> all the functionality of dpkg-cross. Until we have a viable scheme
>> that makes cross-building work without any of the seeded/config files
>> from dpkg-cross which currently cmake (and autoconf?) need I reckon it
>> will remain, although doing a lot less than it does now.

Although I have to say I only worked on the installing side of
this. All the building functionality itself I haven't looked at.

> My problem is that the planning can't really start until multiarch is
> sufficiently advanced that the dpkg maintainers can see what dpkg needs
> to do - then we can plan for the final removal of dpkg-cross. What
> might remain are the cross-config files but the package conversion
> hacks need to go away.
>
> Tomorrow's uploads of dpkg-cross and apt-cross are one step in that
> direction, making dpkg-cross aware of when it needs to "step out of the
> way".

Which is still a long road. So far there are only 6 packages in
Debian declaring Multi-Arch:

console-braille
hwloc
liblouis
liblouisxml
loadlin
vite

And the freeze is aproaching fast.

MfG
        Goswin

PS: Maybe there should be a call to all maintainers multiarchify their
packages while we wait for dpkg/apt to take advantage of the
field. The two can happen in parallel.