[Pkg-ia32-libs-maintainers] ia32-libs-dev transitional package?

[The Wanderer]

On 12/27/2012 11:10 AM, Goswin von Brederlow wrote:

> On Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 10:42:16AM -0500, The Wanderer wrote:
> 
>> With the advent of multiarch, the ia32-libs package has now been replaced
>> with a transitional package which simply depends on the :i386 versions of
>> the separate packages for the various libraries previously shipped as part
>> of ia32-libs. This allows people who had been depending on ia32-libs to
>> make a simple transition to multiarch, with little or no manual effort.
>> 
>> Is there any corresponding or otherwise similar transition planned for
>> ia32-libs-dev and the various libraries' development packages? Or is it
>> intended that anyone using ia32-libs-dev will need to install any
>> *-dev:i386 packages which they still need manually? Or are the -dev
>> packages expected to conflict with their other-architecture equivalents in
>> some way, such that it does not even make sense to have more than one
>> installed at once?
>> 
>> Put simply: what is it intended that someone who has had ia32-libs-dev
>> installed do, in making the transition from ia32-libs to multiarch, to
>> retain the equivalent of the functionality provided by the ia32-libs-dev
>> package?
> 
> The right way is to use an i386 chroot to build i386 packages and use them
> under multiarch.

While that is very likely the right way to build 32-bit Debian packages, it does
not seem to address the question of the functionality which was provided by
ia32-libs-dev.

That package made it possible to compile against (many) 32-bit libraries in a
64-bit environment, just as ia32-libs itself made it possible to run against
those same libraries. Compiling in a 32-bit chroot is not compiling against
32-bit libraries in a 64-bit environment; it is compiling against 32-bit
libraries in a 32-bit environment.

Although there may not be many programs which need to be able to compile and
install 32-bit code in a 64-bit environment (the only one which springs to mind
is the full 64+32 Wine, which is in fact my primary and perhaps even sole use
case for this), the fact remains that it was possible to do that with
ia32-libs{,dev} with no need for the overhead of a 32-bit chroot. That
functionality is what would like to retain under multiarch, and the procedure to
transition from ia32-libs-dev to multiarch while retaining that functionality is
what I am asking about.


If the only way to retain that functionality is to install the still-needed
-dev:i386 packages manually, and it is intended to be possible to do so, fair
enough; it would have been nice to see some hint about that at upgrade time
(rather than simply the removal of the package), but the process shouldn't be
excessively onerous at least in my case. I was simply holding off on the
assumption that a "transitional package" version of ia32-libs-dev would be
forthcoming.

If on the other hand it is *not* intended to be possible to have both -dev:amd64
and -dev:i386 packages installed and usable in parallel, and no alternative is
being provided - i.e., the functionality formerly provided by ia32-libs-dev is
being intentionally dropped - it's possible the decision to drop that
functionality might be justified... but in that case, the fact of the decision
that should be explicitly stated. (And of course, I'd like to see the
justification, if possible.)

-- 
    The Wanderer

Warning: Simply because I argue an issue does not mean I agree with any
side of it.

Every time you let somebody set a limit they start moving it.
   - LiveJournal user antonia_tiger