Re: Multi-architecture package support

["Jonathan Perkin" <jperkin%joyent.com@localhost>]

* On 2012-06-04 at 19:37 BST, Joerg Sonnenberger wrote:

> On Fri, Jun 01, 2012 at 03:31:13PM +0100, Jonathan Perkin wrote:
> > For anyone interested, I have an initial implementation of
> > multi-architecture packages.  This is something we need at Joyent to
> > avoid having to provide package sets for both 32bit and 64bit, and I
> > figured it might be useful for other Solaris users too.
> 
> The one thing I never understood here is why this is a desirable
> property. It involves a lot of pain for very little gain and the only
> justification I have seen so far is poorly written (binary only)
> software.

There is probably a reasonably large thread here which I won't start,
regarding performance implications between 32bit and 64bit binaries.

However, the main driver behind this work is that currently we produce
two entire datasets depending upon whether a customer wants 32bit and
64bit, and it is much simpler for us to produce just one which
supports both, as well as simplifying things for customers.

Solaris comes with native support for this, with the main OS providing
32+64bit libraries and 32bit binaries by default with a set of 64bit
optional binaries, so we are merely extending this support in pkgsrc
for users who will already expect it to exist.

-- 
Jonathan Perkin  -  Joyent, Inc.  -  www.joyent.com