[tlbuild] build on linux-powerpc

[Thomas A. Schmitz]

On Jun 19, 2009, at 1:19 PM, Peter Breitenlohner wrote:

> Hi Thomas,
>
> judging from my linux-x86_64 experience I'd say that this is only  
> partially
> true.  On linux-x86_64 you can run linux-i?86 binaries if and only  
> if the
> kernel is built with 32-bit compatibility enabled (certainly done so  
> by all
> distros).  Thus, eventually, one may or may not want to have separate
> linux-ppc and linux-ppc64 binaries.

> and I forgot to mention: is it safe to assume that all linux-ppc64  
> systems
> do have 32-bit versions of libfontconfig.so & Co?  I have seen  
> distros where
> these 32-bit compatibility libraries are optional (for the x86  
> biarch case).
>
Hi Peter,

thanks for your input on this. I cannot claim to know all linux-ppc64  
systems, but maybe a few thoughts: linux-ppc is quite small; only a  
few distributions offer it at all (ubuntu, e.g., has no official ppc  
release any more). AFAIK, these distributions do the same as debian:  
only the kernel is 64-bit, the rest of the system is 32-bit. Splitting  
a very small system into two even smaller subsystems doesn't make  
sense for them, and a fortiori, it doesn't make sense for TeXLive.  
Here's what the debian powerpc page has to say about it (http://www.debian.org/ports/powerpc/ 
):

> Please note that the Sarge release does not currently support 64-bit  
> execution environments when used with 64-bit processors (e.g. a  
> POWER4 or G5). A 64-bit environment is planned for a future release.
>
Looking at the debian ppc64-devel mailing list gives the impression  
taht the project is all but dead: the last real posts date from August  
2008; after that date, only the occasional spam mail. So I assume that  
everything should work on most systems because they are 32-bit. The  
only exception may be gentoo: they (used to) offer a real 64-bit  
implementation of ppc. I had it running for a few weeks, and there  
wasn't much software available for it, so I gave up. All of this to  
say: I think the situation isn't quite comparable to i386/x86_64. But  
of course, the proof of the pie is in the eating, and we might end up  
with billions of linux-powerpc users banging on our doors because our  
binaries don't work for them... but it's unlikely.

> Hi Karl,
>
> what is your opinion?
>
Yes Karl, please advice!

All best

Thomas