[Gllug] Debian 32/64 bitness

[Nix]

On Sat, 15 Oct 2005, Tethys gibbered uncontrollably:
> 
> Peter Grandi writes:
> 
>>In theory, in theory indeed, one can install a many-platform
>>system, using somthing like: 
>>
>>  /usr/share			platform independent
>>  /usr/fedora-linux-i386/lib	platform dependent
>>  /usr/debian-netbad-amd64/lib	platform dependent
>>  /usr/apple-darwin-ppc/lib	platform dependent
>>  /usr/ibm-aix-power5/lib	platform dependent
> 
> Theory? Who says anything about theory? I actually *do* this,
> although not in /usr -- I'm not completely insane. The whole lot
> is then NFS mounted everywhere, and a clever profile script then
> adds the appropriate directories for the current architecture to
> $PATH and $LD_LIBRARY_PATH. This isn't as trivial as you might
> expect,

Indeed not. The system I use at work uses that as a starting point, then
sets up a symlink tree for each user (actually, for each session,
sharing sessions with identical state), such that each user can have a
different set of active packages as well. (Note that this requires a
certain degree of dependency analysis to handle those programs that run
other programs...)

This eliminated the objection of people at work to using decently modern
tools; that customers don't have them so we can't be sure that things we
write that use them will work there. So I spent considerable time on the
symlink-farm thing, only to find that nobody uses it, because nobody can
remember that it exists.  Apparently documentation in --help and in a
man page and printed out isn't good enough; perhaps I need to get a
sandwich board. *sigh*

>         particularly as it handles emulation, so if I'm logged into
> my sparc/linux machine, I not only get the sparc/linux directories,
> but also the sparc/sunos ones too, and sparc64/linux gets both
> sparc64/linux and sparc/linux.

Neat. I didn't do that myself because I didn't have any of those
situations to deal with (non-UltraSPARC Solaris boxes only, yes,
there still are some in use...)

> That said, I don't currently use a package manager to maintain it...

GNU stow will coexist with anything. :)

-- 
`"Gun-wielding recluse gunned down by local police" isn't the epitaph
 I want. I am hoping for "Witnesses reported the sound up to two hundred
 kilometers away" or "Last body part finally located".' --- James Nicoll
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