[Pkg-ia32-libs-maintainers] Bug#588353: Bug#588353: [ia32-libs] PCSX2, how to Multiarchified packages

[Goswin von Brederlow]

gregory hainaut <gregory.hainaut at gmail.com> writes:

> Hello,
>
> I'm glad to heard the progress on multi-arch. I try to read some
> resources on multi-arch. Unfortunately I failed to understand one basic
> thing. What is the definition of a co-installable package? My
> understanding is that you can install multiple arch package without
> overwriting file, is it correct? In this case, who is in charge to move
> .so file to an unique directory name (ie not everyone in /usr/lib).

You are. Under multiarch libraries belong in /usr/lib/triplet/ so every
arch has a unique place for its libs. You can use $(DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE)
now but I think future dpkg-architecture will have a specific variable
for this because on embedded systems the GNU type isn't unique enough.

> Let's take the example of soundtouch which contains so libraries and
> doc. What is the expected multi-arch value ?
> "same" (co-installable except the issue with the doc)? 

Normaly docs belong in a -doc package. Architecture independent files
should be kept to a minimum.

For those files that do remain in all packages (and there allways is the
changelog and copyright) dpkg will do some special magic. 2 packages of
the same name but different arch may a file collision if and only if the
file is identical. Dpkg will keep track how many packages provide the
file and only remove it when the last providing package is removed.

That case covers the changelog and copyright and any other files which
are identical. But if you have generated docs that differ between archs
(e.g. they contain a timestamp from when they were build) then you must
split them into a -doc package (Architecture: all) or a -common
package. If you have generated header files you might need a -dev-common
or -common-dev.

MfG
        Goswin