Debian is working on a "multiarch" setup that allows packages for
multiple architectures (e.g. i686-linux as well as x86_64-linux and even
powerpc-linux) to be installed in the same system. It seems that the
Nix filesystem layout mostly supports this rather easily, even providing
sharing between packages that were built under different architectures
but actually had no differences there. But do the tools? -- can we
compile under a different architecture than the one we're "primarily"
running on (I forget whether that's meaningful), and run that x86
firefox binary? Can we choose different ones in the boot process, and
(where possible) switch between them at runtime? Certainly the same
partition might be booted from different computers at different times...
There is the enticing suggestion (I have no idea how practical) that
with QEMU and perhaps some help from the kernel to streamline the
process of running different executables, I could even have my x86(64)
system provide powerpc-linux as a first-class dependency!
I suppose that one could provide a build hook to say, if needed, "build
on one of the different architectures this computer can provide". But
I'm not sure how much infrastructure, or even how much theory, is
missing in order to actually make good use of such a system?
-Isaac
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