Bug#39227: apt: archtable does not support hurd

[brinkmd@debian.org]

Package: apt
Version: 0.3.6

Hello,

the "gcc --print-libgcc-file-name" + archtable trick obviously doesn't work
on the Hurd without changes.

I suggest to try:

"dpkg --print-installation-architecture" if not cross-compiling and dpkg
is available, which should always be correct, and is the only sensible
way without duplicating "arbitray" conversion code from dpkg.

For cross compilation, the gcc trick is a good approximation, but please
don't strip off -whatever, but check if it is linux or gnu, or even better,
use full gnu system type names in the archtable:

i386-linux i386      i486
i386-gnu   hurd-i386 i486

(for the third column, there is no sensible default for the Hurd, anyway the
Hurd uses the new dpkg-architecture method to determine the architecture
at build time, so it looses it's meaning on the Hurd. You could write
"i386-gnu hurd-i386 foobar" just as well :).

Please let me know what you think of it. A similar patch would have to be
applied to dpkg, but I have forked it anyway, so it's not as urgent as with
apt.

BTW, can pthreads be made optional? It seems apt-get can be build without
pthread, and it would be good for configure just to disable components that
require pthread instead of bailing out completely (reason is that the Hurd
does not have pthreads implemented of course. We wouldn't miss the fancy
gui right now, but we miss the apt-get tool a lot).

Thanks,
Marcus

-- System Information
Debian Release: potato
Kernel Version: Linux flora 2.2.8 #1 Mit Mai 12 01:55:43 CEST 1999 i586 unknown

Versions of the packages apt depends on:
ii  libc6           2.1.1-10       GNU C Library: Shared libraries and timezone
ii  libc6           2.1.1-10       GNU C Library: Shared libraries and timezone
hi  libstdc++2.9-gl 2.91.63-1.1    The GNU stdc++ library (egcs version)