Comment 14 for bug 1300211

But _why_ does gcc-multilib create that link?

gcc-multilib is a meta-package. None of the components that actually do anything depend on it. If I remove it and keep just the versioned packages (gcc-5-multilib, g++-5-multilib – or just the appropriate :i386 libraries), gcc/g++ still compile with both -m32 and -m64 just fine and cross-compilers can be installed too and pass a smoke-test.

So this is an obvious workaround. gcc-multilib is not needed for anything, gcc-5-multilib (and g++/gobj/gobj++-5-multilib) will pull in everything that is needed for -m32 and -m64. The only downside is that now the switch to -6- will have to be made manually when it hits appropriate release.

But why, then, does the link exist in the first place?