32-bit/i386 ports/packges on amd64

[Mike Meyer]

In <20070320073030.GC76696 at turion.vk2pj.dyndns.org>, Peter Jeremy <peterjeremy at optushome.com.au> typed:
> Solaris (and I suspect Linux) has taken the approach that the kernel
> is 64-bit but userland is primarily 32-bit with applications able to
> build/run as 64-bit if desired.

Linux (at least the rhe distribution) doesn't do this. The system
binaries are all 64-bit, the toolchains build 64-bit binaries by
default, etc. However, the toolchains are also configured so that
passing -m32 to gcc will do the right thing all the way down the line;
last time I tried that (6.1 or so) it didn't work.

The first step in getting the ports/packages to work properly is to
either 1) get the system c cmopiler to correctly handle requests to
build 32-bit binaries, or 2) add a port that adds a C compiler that
does that.

FWIW, OSX has a 32-bit kernel and userland, but can run (and build)
64-bit binaries.

	<mike
-- 
Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org>		http://www.mired.org/consulting.html
Independent Network/Unix/Perforce consultant, email for more information.