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HEADS-UP: "pkgsrc" on Mac OS X Snow Leopard defaults to 32-Bit mode now



        Hello,

I've just committed a change to "pkgsrc" that will make the 32-Bit
Application Binary Interface (ABI) the default under Mac OS X Snow Leopard.
"pkgsrc" was previously mirroring the behaviour of Apple's
development tools Xcode and created 64-Bit binaries on system that
are able to execute them.

1.) Why was this change done?

    While moving to 64-Bit is the right long term choice it causes
    a lot of problems in the short term. There are a lot of software
    packages that don't work in 64-Bit mode under Mac OS X at the
    moment, e.g. SDL or Python version 2.5.

    To avoid a poor user experience "pkgsrc" therefore defaults to
    the 32-Bit that the majority of software packages support.

2.) Can I still use the 64-Bit ABI?

    Yes, you can do that by boot-strapping using the "--abi 64" option
    or by adding "ABI= 64" to "/usr/pkg/etc/mk.conf". You will however
    experience problem if you try to switch an existing 32-Bit installation
    to 64-Bit (or vise versa) without rebuilding all of the packages.

3.) How do I find out whether I'm using the 32-Bit or 64-Bit ABI right now?

    Please use the command "file /usr/pkg/sbin/pkg_info". If it reports
    that "pkg_info" is a "Mach-O executable i386" you are using the
    32-Bit ABI. If it reports a "Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64"
    you are using the 64-Bit ABI. If you want to continue using the
    64-Bit ABI add "ABI= 64" to "/etc/mk.conf", please. If you want
    to switch to 32-Bit you will have to bootstrap again and to
    rebuild your packages afterwards.

I hope this information will avoid further confusion.

        Kind regards

-- 
Matthias Scheler                                  http://zhadum.org.uk/

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