On Thu, Apr 14, 2011 at 10:25 AM, Niels Möller nisse@lysator.liu.se wrote:
Nettle should work better with other GNU packages if it follows the GNU standards, as the assumption of lib/ as a default is a common one in other configure scripts.
I don't change the default lightly, but I still think it's the right thing to do when
- The user has not provided --libdir explicitly.
- One is building on a multi-abi system, which is a case where the
autoconf default doesn't even try to do the right thing. 3. The autoconf default is known to be wrong.
I don't really find this a serious problem because libdir can be provided by the one performing compilation and fix any issues, anyway.
As a matter of policy though, I think the FHS way of storing in /usr/lib 32-bit binaries, even if the default system compiler outputs 64-bit binaries, is quite absurd, and looks like a relic from the era that binary only programs came with 32-bit intel code only. Systems like debian correctly for me do not follow this approach because it has no benefit for the user of a multi-lib system and only causes confusion, as programs in /usr/bin do not use libraries in /usr/lib. What you call a multi-lib system is actually a system with a native word size and a compatibility mode with another (smaller) word size. Why one not using the compatibility mode have an empty /usr/lib? This requirement is intended only for the one distributing ancient 32-bit binaries and I see no compelling reason for free software or open systems to follow that by default.
regards, Nikos