i386 junk on x86_64 default install

[Gilboa Davara]

On Wed, 2006-10-25 at 22:49 -0400, Michel Salim wrote:
> I do think it makes sense for yum to install both i386 and x86_64
> variants of a package, if both are available, unless specified
> otherwise. What I don't think makes sense, though, is having /so/ many
> i386 packages available in the x86_64 tree, and thus also in the
> installation media.
> 
> Having 32-bit libraries makes sense, for the purpose of running legacy
> closed-source applications. Having i386 -devel packages... does not.
> What's the point, without a 32-bit compiler to go along?
> 
> And then there are the i386 applications: firefox, gaim, etc. These
> get installed by default (there's no way I can see to exclude i386
> packages short of using kickstart). Removing them should be
> straightforward, right? Just yum --remove glibc.i686. But it's not
> that simple:
> 
> 1. Often times, removing a 32-bit package also removes the files
> shared with the 64-bit sibling.
> 2. With the default FC6 install, I get a circular dependency when
> trying to remove glibc.i686. It never displays the final list of
> affected packages.
> 
> Would it be possible, for FC7, to limit the 32-bit packages included
> in -core to only the 32-bit libraries? Anything that installs to
> /usr/bin should be excluded. Maybe include a core-i386 repository that
> is by default disabled, for users who need 32-bit apps.
> 
> -- 
> Michel Salim
> http://salimma.livejournal.com/
> 

Maybe this will be a good time to resurface this thread:
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2006-August/msg00709.html

- Gilboa