[Fedora-packaging] Namespace for cross-compilation tools?

[Toshio Kuratomi]

On Fri, 2006-06-16 at 19:39 +1200, Michael J Knox wrote:
> Ralf Corsepius wrote:
> > A "cross-i386-gcc" would be complete non-sense, because a cross tool
> > chain depends on the OS and several components more. An
> > i386-rtems4.7-gcc is something very different from a i386-cygwin-gcc or
> > a i386-redhat-gcc or a i386-suse-gcc.
> >   
> Again, this is a packaging name, not a binary target. Packaged as 
> cross-arm-gcc for example, tells me straigh way what this package is. 
> However, i386-rtems4.7-binutils  doesn't help tell what it is. A fancy 
> binutils? A binutils addon? I also think that having the arch (read i386 
> not rtems) in the name is not needed. RPM takes care of the arch.
> 
> 1) cross-rtems4.7-binutils-2.16.1-0.20051229.1.fc6.i386.rpm
> vs
> 2) i386-rtems4.7-binutils-2.16.1-0.20051229.1.fc6.i386.rpm

#1 Leaves out important information and will lead to naming conflicts.
Is this cross compiler going to generate code for rtems on a i386?  A
ppc?  A sparc?  We don't know.  Whatever naming convention is chosen
must include (i386, rtems4.7, binutils) as part of %{name} otherwise the
name is incomplete and will clash with other packages.

#2 Leaves the enduser browsing the package lists in the dark.  As Jason
Tibbits wrote:
> What is "i386" and why does it have a subpackage of "rtems4.7"?

This is partially because '-' is used as a separator in rpm packages
(%{name}-%{version}-%{release}) and partially because we are conditioned
to expect "i386" at the end of the rpm.

I can see three choices:

1) Ignore the enduser confusion and go with Ralf's naming:
  i386-rtems4.7-binutils-2.16.1-0.20051229.1.fc6.i386.rpm

2) Namespace the whole thing:
  cross-i386-rtems4.7-binutils-2.16.1-0.20051229.1.fc6.i386.rpm

3) Play games with the '-' to avoid the "it's an rpm separator"
association:
  i386_rtems4.7_binutils-2.16.1-0.20051229.1.fc6.i386.rpm

FWIW, I think #2 has the most precedent.

-Toshio