Bug#367962: Please don't ship a /lib64 symlink in the package on amd64

[Andreas Jochens <aj@andaco.de>]

Hello Aurelien,

On 06-May-19 04:15, Aurelien Jarno wrote:
> [Ccing: amd64 and dpkg developers as they are concerned by this subject]
> Currently the (/usr)/lib64 -> /lib symlink is shipped in the libc6 
> package. Goswin von Brederlow asked for this link to be created in the 
> postinst instead, so that packages could install files in both 
> (/usr)/lib and (/usr)/lib64 directories.
> 
> 
> Could you please give me your opinion on that, so that I can take a 
> decision?

please do not change the status quo regarding the lib64 symlinks.

During the porting of Debian to amd64 quite a few alternatives
regarding the lib64 issue were discussed and tested. The biarch approach 
with /usr/lib and /usr/lib64 as two different directories failed badly.

> I have concerns about that:
> - I don't really want to add something specific to amd64 in postinst. 
> But ok, that's not an argument.
> - I am not sure that creating the link in postinst will work. Creating 
> it in preinst looks safer to me.
> - If you can install files in (/usr)/lib64, the files will end up in 
> (/usr)/lib. And dpkg won't know anything about them. dpkg -S and other 
> tools won't work correctly.
> - If you have two packages providing the same files in (/usr)/lib and 
> (/usr)/lib64, then the files will be overwritten without warning. This 
> is IMHO not acceptable.

I share these concerns.


The current policy which requires all packages to install native 
amd64 libraries in /usr/lib is simple and sane. This should not be
changed. 

Anything which makes it easier to violate this simple policy
will lead to a mixed usage of /usr/lib and /usr/lib64 and consequently
to problems which could be difficult to disentangle later.

This is just my personal opinion.

Regards
Andreas Jochens