Re: multiarch standard path

[Bill Allombert <Bill.Allombert@math.u-bordeaux1.fr>]

On Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 03:45:34PM -0600, Jonathan Nieder wrote:
> Hi Bill,
> 
> Bill Allombert wrote:
> 
> > When multiarch was introduced, it was implied that a tool to query the
> > multiarch would be standardised. However unless I missed need, no such 
> > tool exist yet. This is problematic when building older version of software.
> > with legacy build systems that needs to know the path to a library.
> 
> I believe "gcc -print-multiarch" is supposed to do that.
> 
>  $ gcc -m32 -print-multiarch
>  i386-linux-gnu
>  $ gcc -m64 -print-multiarch
>  x86_64-linux-gnu

Thanks a lot for mentionning it. Is that documented ?

> [...]
> > I wonder if we could not simply add a symlink
> > /usr/lib/default-abi -> /usr/lib/<multiarch-triplet>
> > This way, their would be an universal path valid for older build systems
> > without running any scripts.
> 
> This requires the user to somehow declare which should be the default ABI.
> At that point, a symlink farm /usr/lib/*.so.* -> <triplet>/\1.so.\2
> does not seem like a terrible idea, as discussed here:

Why would you need a symlink farm for?

>   http://bugs.debian.org/648889
> 
> Though I have never needed it myself.

This is useful for debbuging: for doing bisection and for trying older compiler
versions.
But anyway, if 'gcc -print-multiarch' return the right alue, then this is moot.

Cheers,
-- 
Bill. <ballombe@debian.org>

Imagine a large red swirl here.