[csw-maintainers] Proposing new "x" flag

[Dagobert Michelsen]

Hi Phil,

Am 08.03.2011 um 18:29 schrieb Philip Brown:
> On Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 7:22 AM, Dagobert Michelsen <dam at opencsw.org> wrote:
>> I would like to introduce a new flag "x" in addition to
>> the "p" (patched) flag. It should mean that the packages
>> is "64 bit compatible", whatever that means:
>> ...
>> Thoughts?
> 
> Hmm.  2 thoughts:
> 
> 1. that may be confused with "x86"

Because it is an "x"? If it is documented this should be no problem.

> 2. its interesting to note that sun USED to do this.. but now decided
> to bundle everything together.
> no separate 32 vs 64 bit packages that I'm aware of now.
> 
>> The last issue is particularly important to me as it should
>> be easily visible to the end user if the module is usable
>> with the new 64 bit perl.
> 
> Is there going to be a *separate* "64bit perl" package? or is there
> going to be one single unified perl package, that is "64bit 'capable'"
> ?

Sun made separate packages in Solaris 7 for 32 and 64 bit where the
64 bit packages had an append "x" on package name.

I suggest making combined packages for 32 and 64 bit. My main intention is
Perl modules where it may not be possible to build a 64 bit module for some
reason. If a user needs specific modules it should be as easy as possible
to see if the 64 bit Perl can be used for this. With the "x" flag it would
be sufficient to just look at the module version listing.


Best regards

  -- Dago