Re: [PATCH] {maint} multilib: deprecate, will be moved to contrib

[Ralf Corsepius]

On 01/18/2012 11:22 AM, Stefano Lattarini wrote:
> As of 2012-01-17, according to Google codesarch, almost no active
> package is using the 'multilib' feature offered by automake.

This is only partially correct. Multilibs are a compiler's feature (esp. 
a GCC feature) and widely used in the embedded world.

> The only major exception seems to be GCC...
Not quite. GCC is the #1 user of multilibs itself and framework 
multilib'ed libraries are using.

>  But on a closer look,
> it become clear that GCC basically carries its own version of
> multilib support.  In fact, Automake syncs its 'config-ml.in' and
> 'symlink-tree' scripts from GCC; and the GCC repository contains a
> version of the 'multi.m4' file that is *more* updated than the one
> in the automake repository (the former having being modified the
> last time in 2008, the latter only in 2006).
Correct, multilibs in automake have always been the automake 
maintainer's unloved and obviously ununderstood step child.

It's only a reflection of multilibs not being widely used by main-stream 
Linux distros and architectures having been used for Linux so far. (The 
"arms" being on the raise could change this situation)

> The 'multilib' feature was anyway hardly documented at all, only
> being briefly cited in the manual as an "obscure feature", "still
> experimental", that was only for users "familiar with multilibs"
> and which "can debug problems they might encounter".
I don't know who wrote this, but I prefer to abstain from further 
commenting on it :(

> * NEWS (Future backward incompatibility): Update.
> * doc/automake.texi: Deprecate multilib support.  State that it
> will be removed from automake core in the next major release.
> * m4/multi.m4 (AM_ENABLE_MULTILIB): Deprecate.  If called, now
> gives a proper warning in the 'obsolete' category (while still
> retaining its former behaviour for the rest).
> * tests/multilib.test: Update.
> * contrib/multilib/multi.m4: New, verbatim copy of the earlier
> version of multi.m4, without the new deprecation warning.
> ---
>
> I will push this patch to maint in 72 hours if there is no objection.
> Then I'll proceed with a patch for master that removes the multilib
> support from the Automake core and moves it into 'contrib/' (I will
> post that patch here before committing, of course).

Maximum veto ... this step would be a massive regression to me.
It's a step which would throw my works back ca. 10 years.

Ralf