Bug#325226: libc6: Wrong dynamic linker on amd64
On 06-Feb-10 13:06, Aurelien Jarno wrote:
> > Currently, the /lib64 directory symlink is used _only_ to provide the
> > correct linker path. Nothing else in the distribution references
> > the /lib64 directory, i.e. everything is (or at least should
> > be) installed in /lib and nothing depends on the /lib64 symlink
> > with the single exception of the linker path.
>
> That let me ask about having /lib64 as the real directory, and /lib as
> a symlink. At least it would make the /lib64 directory compliant with
> the FHS.
>
> Do you know what kind of problem that could cause, other than a complex
> upgrade?
This question has a technical and a "political" answer.
>From the technical point of view it should be possible to make /lib64
a real directory and /lib a symlink to /lib64. But this would not
get us any closer to the current FHS because with /lib being a
symlink to /lib64 we still could not put 32-bit libraries in /lib as the
current FHS requires.
A full FHS conforming setup where 64-bit libraries are in /lib64
and 32-bit libraries in /lib would be _very_ difficult to achieve.
The Debian amd64 porting team tried this at the beginning, but it
turned out that this would involve many (ugly) changes to quite a lot of
packages. So this is almost certainly not an option for Debian.
Moreover, I think that the FHS is at fault here. It is simply
_wrong_ to change the established standard filesystem layout
which places native libraries in (/usr)/lib and put them
in some other directory like /lib64 instead.
The FHS should be changed to allow the amd64 port to use the standard
directories (/usr)/lib for its native libraries. I filed a corresponding
request to the FHS mailing list a while ago but I did not get any answer
yet. It would probably help if people who are more important than me
would support this request.
Currently, Redhat and Suse install the native amd64 libraries in /lib64
while Debian, Ubuntu and Gentoo install them in /lib where they belong.
I do not see any reason why the FHS should prohibit the saner approach
used by Debian, Ubuntu and Gentoo.
Regards
Andreas Jochens
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