On Thu, 09 Aug 2007, Magnus Holmgren wrote: > (Please don't start a debate over what an interpreted language is, I just > tried to generalize the subject.) > > Perl XS module packages usually install all their code under /usr/lib/perl5 - > not just the shared library that implements the external subroutine, but also > at least one ordinary module, which interfaces with the shared library using > DynaLoader and perhaps provides additional subroutines. These ordinary > modules are not architecture-specific in themselves. I don't know that much > about Python - IIUC the interpreter can directly load shared libraries that > implement the right interface, but python2.4 and python2.5 at least > install .py files in /usr/lib/python<version>. > > What's the rationale behind not strictly separating architecture-independent > and architecture-specific code?
The rationale is simply that it's not always easily doable while using the official installation methods, and that changing it manually is error-prone and can be confusing in some cases. While it's important that all files in /usr/share be arch-independent (because one might want to share that between several machines), it's not that important that /usr/lib contains only arch-dependent stuff. In fact, in most cases it's convenient (if not required) to have the arch-indep glue around the binary part in the same directory than the binary part. Cheers, -- Raphaël Hertzog Premier livre français sur Debian GNU/Linux : http://www.ouaza.com/livre/admin-debian/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
