[tex-live] TL platforms vs. dpkg-architecture

[Andreas Scherer]

Greetings,

I am in the process of upgrading my physical desktop with a new computer and 
experience some discrepancies between TL's 'platform list' and the respective 
analysis of the 'dpkg-architecture' programme.

Machine A is running Linux Mint 17.2 (based on Ubuntu 14.04) and is found to 
have these values from 'dpkg-architecture':

    arch = i386
    build_arch = i386
    os = linux
    host_cpu = i686
    host_os = linux

The installed TL2015 runs out of 'bin/i386-linux'.

Machine B is running Kubuntu 16.04 and has these values:

    arch = amd64
    build_arch = amd64
    os = linux
    host_cpu = x86_64
    host_os = linux

and its TL2015 uses 'bin/x86_64-linux'.

My problem is to find common variables that work on both machines. (See 
https://github.com/ascherer/debbuild/ for details.) I started with using 
'arch' on machine A ('i386' + 'linux' = 'i386-linux'), but this doesn't suite 
machine B ('amd64' + 'linux' /= 'x86_64-linux'). So now I switched to using 
'host_cpu' on machine B ('x86_64' + 'linux' = 'x86_64-linux'), but now machine 
A hickups ('i686' + 'linux' /= 'i386-linux').

Why are some platforms listed with 'amd64' (e.g., bsd), while others are 
listed with 'x86_64' (e.g., linux)?

For now I stick with 'host_cpu' and set a softlink from 'bin/i386-linux' to 
'i686-linux' on machine A.

Andreas