Bug#864144: e2fsprogs strangeness about mips* multilibs
Source: e2fsprogs
Version: 1.43.4-2
Severity: wishlist
User: helmutg@debian.org
Usertags: rebootstrap
Hi,
I'm having difficulties figuring the intended behaviour of e2fsprogs for
mips* hosts. Can you clarify the following questions and update the
packaging accordingly?
* e2fsprogs Build-Depends: gcc-multilib [mips mipsel], yet it only
actually builds 64bit libs during native builds. I think that either
the build dependency should be annotated with <!cross> to indicate
that gcc-multilib is not used during cross builds or e2fsprogs should
build the 64bit libs during cross builds. What is preferred?
* Having native builds differ from cross builds is considered bad
practise. Ideally, we want to validate cross builds against native
builds using diffoscope, i.e. we aim for reproducible cross builds.
Please rethink whether this difference is really necessary. Building
cross toolchains with multilib support is feasible. I've been doing
that for like 2 years now. If opting out of these builds is
necessary, the <nobiarch> build profile should be used rather than
doing so unconditionally for cross builds.
* It seems that the extra libraries are called libext2fs-nopic.a and
lib64ext2fs-nopic.a (i.e. static libraries). Are they really still in
use? They were added for #329074. As far as I understand that bug
report, they were added for arcboot, which got removed November last
year. So maybe these can go away as well?
I essentially see three reasonable outcomes now (in order of
preference):
* Remove these libraries and the gcc-multilib dependency.
* Make building these libraries conditional to the absence of a
<nobiarch> profile, but build them during cross builds.
* Annotate the gcc-multilib dependency with <!cross>.
The current state is undesirable, because e2fsprogs is cross
bd-uninstallable (gcc-multilib unsatisfiable) on mips/mipsel for no
useful reason. Please use or remove that dependency.
Helmut
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