Subject: $(ARCH)-debian-linux-gnu

From: [email-masked] (Erick Branderhorst)
Date: Wed, 14 Aug 1996 12:28:56 +0100

Hi,

Should we use $(ARCH)-debian-linux-gnu as parameter for ./configure
and $(ARCH)-debian-linux?  

If so can it specified in the guidelines.
If not what should we use?

Erick

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From: [email-masked] (J.H.M.Dassen)
Date: Wed, 14 Aug 1996 17:01:27 +0200 (MDT)

> If not what should we use?

In the transition to ELF phase, our gcc package used i486-debian-linux,
which then caused some problems with software/documentation expecting
i486-unknown-linux.

Still, I'm tempted to say: "put the debian in", it's better than unknown.

BTW, wasn't there some talk on having an extra part for the full system
name, to indicate "mainly GNU based"? (gnu.misc.discuss, emacs perhaps?)

Ray
-- 
LEADERSHIP  A form of self-preservation exhibited by people with auto-
destructive imaginations in order to ensure that when it comes to the crunch 
it'll be someone else's bones which go crack and not their own.       
- The Hipcrime Vocab by Chad C. Mulligan

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From: Ian Jackson <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 96 00:26 BST

> If not what should we use?

$(ARCH)-debian-linux, but $(ARCH) should usually be 486,
shouldn't it ?

I don't know what the $(ARCH) parameter changes with GNU software,
when you vary it between 386, 486, 586, &c.

When this is settled please remind me to mention this in the policy
manual.

Ian.

---

From: Miquel van Smoorenburg <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 1996 13:19:36 +0200 (MET DST)

> when you vary it between 386, 486, 586, &c.

The GNU configure scripts usually match on i[3456]86-*-*) for
architecture support, so that's not a problem.

I usually do something like:

a = $(shell dpkg --print-architecture)

ifeq (i386,$(a))
arch = i486-debian-linux
else
arch = $(a)-debian-linux

build: config.status
	make
       
config.status:
	./configure --prefix=/usr $(arch)

Mike.
-- 
  Miquel van    | Cistron Internet Services   --    Alphen aan den Rijn.
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---

From: Ian Jackson <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 26 Aug 96 13:59 BST

Miquel van Smoorenburg writes ("Re: $(ARCH)-debian-linux-gnu"):
...
> a = $(shell dpkg --print-architecture)
...

Should I provide a command to do this automatically ?

dpkg --print-gnu-build-architecture perhaps.

Ian.

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From: Miquel van Smoorenburg <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 26 Aug 1996 20:03:01 +0200 (MET DST)

> dpkg --print-gnu-build-architecture perhaps.

Sure, why not. It would result in more consistency, and that's
a Good Thing (TM)

Mike.
-- 
   Miquel van      | Cistron Internet Services   --    Alphen aan den Rijn.
   Smoorenburg,    | mailto:[email-masked]          http://www.cistron.nl/
[email-masked] | Tel: +31-172-419445 (Voice) 430979 (Fax) 442580 (Data)

---

From: Ian Jackson <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 96 14:29 BST

Juergen Menden writes to me in private email:
...
> well, unfortunately some packages (like ldso) need i386-linux and
> wouldn't like to match i486-linux. better might be

ld.so is not a GNU package, is it ?  It probably uses our own
canonical architecture strings, which include i386 for intel, and
which is generated by dpkg --print-architecture.

I'm only putting the --print-gnu-build-architecture flag in because
the many GNU packages all need the same mapping from our to their
architecture.

>   dpkg --print-architecture --intel-arch=i486
> (with --intel-arch=i386 being the default)

This is a hack, which I will not implement.

Ian.

---

From: Ian Jackson <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 96 14:30 BST

> Sure, why not. It would result in more consistency, and that's

This will be in 1.3.11.  Can anyone think of a reasonable thing to say
in the policy manual about when and how to use it ?

Ian.

---

From: Mark Eichin <[email-masked]>
Date: 30 Aug 1996 02:27:52 -0400

I've missed something here.  Why are we setting i486 instead of i386
for *anything*? I can see an advantage to having a dpkg command that
prints "i386-debian-linux-gnu" instead of having to cobble it together
(did you notice that most of the changes between 19.31 and 19.32 were
to get rid of "lignux" and quietly change it to linux-gnu?) I just
don't see where the 486 vs. 386 change comes from.

(I'll note that of course gcc's configuration is a special case, since
486 optimizations don't slow down 386 code noticeably.  But that's a
*special* case not a general one.)