Multilib in FC7? Disable by default?

[dragoran]

Gilboa Davara wrote:
> On Sun, 2006-08-20 at 19:13 +0200, dragoran wrote:
>   
>> Gilboa Davara wrote:
>>     
>>> Hello all,
>>>
>>> I've got a simple question that I'd like to table for discussion.
>>> Current -devel tree seems to suggest that FC6 multilib FC6 has almost
>>> doubled in size (from ~13% of the total package count in FC4/5 to ~24%
>>> in the current devel tree)
>>> On the other hand, FC6 is about to include native 64bit OO and gcj (with
>>> browser support) builds, lowering the need for the default i386 support,
>>> as only Wine/Extra actually -requires- multilib support to run.
>>> More-ever, I'd venture to guess that most x86_64 installation will most
>>> likely be used to run native 64bit services and application - mostly on
>>> servers and workstation - lowering the need for multilib even further.
>>> (You won't run 32bit flash on your brand new 32 cores server... let
>>> alone that fact that flash/win32codecs are not supported by Fedora.)
>>>
>>> My question is simple: why not add an installation option to disable
>>> multilib support completely.
>>>
>>> Mind you, I use my workstation to run 32bit software and games... but I
>>> rather disable multilib completely and create a small, specialized
>>> 'stupid' i386 chroot (no DE, no user-applications; only a basic set of
>>> i386  libraries and UI toolkits) and use it to run i386 applications in
>>> a confined space. (Xen/i386 might be an interesting option - though it
>>> won't be able to run hardware GL applications which I need... ;))
>>>
>>> - Gilboa
>>>
>>>   
>>>       
>> Sorry but I have to disagree here, the x86_64 arch is able to nativly 
>> run 32bit and 64bit software, so supporting multilib is using a feature 
>> of the hardware and there are many 32bit only apps out there and this 
>> also wont change in the near feature. If you don't need the 32bit libs 
>> you can simply remove all i386/i686 rpms (yum remove glibc.i686 should 
>> do it).
>>     
>
> I'm not suggesting the multilib is not required, I am suggesting to give
> the option to disable it during the installation.
>   
ok I got confused by your title "disable by default"
> BTW, isn't 'yum remove glibc.i686' a temporary solution? Won't yum will
> try to reinstall the missing package tree once I run 'yum update' and/or
> 'yum install foo'?
>   
I have never tryed it but all apps should somehow depend on glibc that 
means removing it will remove all i386/686 apps.
yum supports execuldearch so you can force it not to install i386 packages.
but I don't see a point in removing them... a x86_64 capable box won't 
have a small hardisk(s) so the extra libs wont be that much of a problem.
**
> - Gilboa
>
>