Comment 21 for bug 64501

tags 339870 wontfix
thanks

Hi,

On Sat, 2008-01-12 at 18:47:53 +0100, Roland Stigge wrote:
> Debian Bug Tracking System wrote:
> > * Error out if the toolchain used to build is not powerpc-linux-gnu.
> > (Closes: #322300, #339870)
>
> Again, I don't agree here (backed by p2): The package is wrong if it
> asserts that it's "Architecture: all". It contains powerpc specific
> stuff and can only be built on (i.e. for) that architecture. Therefore,
> it should be "Architecture: powerpc".

The only relevant part here is that it provides ppc binaries, the fact
that it needs a ppc toolchain is not, I'd say, it's an arch:all package
after all. Take vgabios as a similar example, it can be built anywhere
(because it uses bcc and bin86), it's an arch:all package that provides
i386 binaries, but yet it cannot be used on real i386 hardware, so
making it arch:any would make it a bit useless, you could only use it
under i386 to emulate i386 systems.

Also those are firmwares, you will not be able to run them directly on
your host system anyway, they either might need to be installed in a
BIOS/PROM/whatever or used inside an emulator, so I don't think they
are in the same situation as normal binaries.

Yes, ideally, to be pedantically correct, we would either have
powerpc (or other) cross-toolchains on the archive, or we'd have
Multiarch support and the package could be arch:powerpc and would be
possible to install on other arches. But this is not possible right
now, so consider this wontfix.

Other packages in a similar situation are proll, openbios-sparc,
bochsbios and vgabios (there might be others).

> Workarounds like an error on wrong toolchain architecture are wrong
> (there is an error anyway if you try to build on !powerpc).

That error is too late, and this one at least explains why it's
failing.

regards,
guillem