Switching ppc64el port name to ppc64le

[Lior Kaplan]

Hi,

I'm doing some builds (mostly PHP) for PowerPC 64bit little endian. I've
started to use the Ubuntu port and got confused why they chose to swap the
le (little endian) to el. In all the relevant tool chain tools it is called
ppc64le, and this is what other distributions (fedora / opensuse) have
adopted for this port.

I was happy to see Wookey's announcement about the port going to be
official, but before this happens I think it's our last chance to fix this
minor but important issue. I'm trying to avoid yet another different name
for a Debian port (e.g. amd64, although there were reasons).

Yes, the rename will take effort, but this change will probably save a lot
of confusion in the future (and also code to gap the difference).

Example:

# uname -a
Linux sys-67646 3.13.0-32-generic #57-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jul 15 03:50:31 UTC
2014 *ppc64le ppc64le ppc64le* GNU/Linux

# dpkg --print-architecture
*ppc64el*

Kaplan

p.s
I've talked with Wookey and Breno privately, and now want to raise the
issue publicly.

[Mauricio Faria de Oliveira]

Hi Lion,

I'd like to contribute w/ the discussion.

[...] why they chose to swap
the le (little endian) to el.[...]

It's an existing tradition, AFAICT:

Looking at the ppc64el patch for dpkg, the maintainer's response is [1]:

"""
I see this being supported already by config.{guess, sub}, good :), and
*the arch name matches existing conventions*, so I'll merge the patch
[...]
"""

So, looking at dpkg's cputable [2] 'Debian name' column, the 'el/eb'
suffix for endianness is indeed, clearly, the convention.

Interestingly, on the 'GNU name' column, it looks like that is the
convention too, being 'le' different than the others ('el/eb').
(although I'm not familiar w/ most other existing GNU names/aliases,
nor the reasons/how they're chosen)

[...] In all the relevant tool chain tools it is
called ppc64le, and this is what other distributions (fedora / opensuse)
have adopted for this port.

Indeed. I believe the reason for that is 2-fold:
- 1 the GNU toolchain would follow GNU names
- 2 /may/ be just that the 'existing tradition' for/adopted
by those distros is to follow GNU names. (I don't happen to know)

I was happy to see Wookey's announcement about the port going to be
official, [...]

High five! :)

[...] to fix
this minor but important issue. [...]

Hm, 'fix' implies this is something 'wrong/broken' or 'issue', as you
say. Well, I'm new to all this, and not a DD, thus probably not in
position to state 'is/isn't', but sure other respectable people can. :)

Yes, the rename will take effort, but this change will probably save a
lot of confusion in the future (and also code to gap the difference).

Hah, not just 'in the future' (the number of times I've been asked/poked
about this already.. :-)

In summary, I believe the 'existing tradition' point, mentioned by the
dpkg maintainer, indicates 'el' is OK/correct on our world.

cheers!

[1] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=718945#10
[2] https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/dpkg/dpkg.git/tree/cputable

[Mauricio Faria de Oliveira]

Post by Mauricio Faria de Oliveira
Hi Lion,

s/n/r/, sorry.

[Mauricio Faria de Oliveira]

[...] In all the relevant tool chain tools it is
called ppc64le, and this is what other distributions (fedora / opensuse)
have adopted for this port.

A related funny piece for Friday :) from linuxppc-dev [1]:
'At least we're consistent in our inconsistency.'

The Debian powerpc little endian architecture is called ppc64le. This

Huh? ppc64le or ppc64el?

ppc64el. Commit message is wrong. Fixed below.

Yay! Just like every other architecture, we continue to have the deb
based distros call it one thing, and the RPM based distros call it
another. At least we're consistent in our inconsistency.

[1]
https://lists.ozlabs.org/pipermail/linuxppc-dev/2014-September/120650.html


Cheers,