[Pkg-ia32-libs-maintainers] ia32-lib plans and security support for same

[Goswin von Brederlow]

Mike Hommey <mh at glandium.org> writes:

> On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 02:46:09AM +0200, Goswin von Brederlow wrote:
>> Hi,
>> 
>> FTP-master asked me on irc to get permission from you (debian-security)
>> for splitting up ia32-libs into multiple source packages before going
>> any further.
>> 
>> The ia32-libs package provides 32bit i486 legacy support for amd64 and
>> ia64 so that users can run software that is only available in
>> 32bit. Among others this includes rar, wine, acrobat reader, mplayer
>> with windows dlls (sometimes you still need those), wine, google
>> earth, skipe, znes. According to popcon 94% of the amd64/ia64 users
>> have ia32-libs installed so the demand for 32bit support is still
>> high.
>> 
>> We, the ia32-libs team, plan to split up ia32-libs into multiple
>> source packages because it has become too big to keep track of it all.
> (...)
>
> I'm going to ask a very stupid question, I'm sure, but why can't these
> be generated from the corresponding packages sources instead of having
> an ia32 source package as well?
>
> Mike

- No toolchain support on ia64. Can't build them on ia64.
- Many libs are frozen so no go for lenny anyway.

MfG
        Goswin