*.moarvm files should be installed in /usr/lib/nqp and not in /usr/share/nqp/

Question

*.moarvm files should be installed in /usr/lib/nqp and not in /usr/share/nqp/

dod38fr opened this issue 4 years ago · 5 comments

Hi

nqp Debian package is build with perl Configure.pl --backends=moar --prefix=/usr so all *.moarvm files land in /usr/share/nqp/:

/usr/share/nqp/lib
/usr/share/nqp/lib/MASTNodes.moarvm
/usr/share/nqp/lib/MASTOps.moarvm
...

But Debian quality tools are complaining:

N:    If the data in /usr/share is not architecture-independent, this is a
N:    Policy violation that should be fixed by moving the data elsewhere
N:    (usually /usr/lib).

As far as I recall, moarvm files are arch dependent so they should land un /usr/lib/nqp.

Is there a way to achieve this ?

All the best

Dod for Debian

Answer 1 · 2020-07-30T15:14:49.000Z

I think .moarvm files are actually not arch dependent. In that respect they are pretty similar to Javas .class files.

Can someone more knowledgeable verify my claim?

Answer 2 · 2020-07-31T06:33:39.000Z

Correct, .moarvm files are architecture independent. Thus installation into /usr/share/nqp/ is correct according to the FHS.

Answer 3 · 2020-07-31T09:29:38.000Z

For the record, nqp package used to be arch independent (i.e. one package is built to be deployed on all arches) until 2018.02.

The git log of the change to arch dependent shows:

generated moarvm files may not always be arch independent. It works most
of the time, but there's no guarantee.
Given the problem faced on big endian arches (rakudo build fails at the
first invocation of arch/all nqp), nqp is now a arch dependent packages
using the same arches as moarvm package.

Unfortunately, I cannot find my source. It was probably on IRC.

Answer 4 · 2020-07-31T10:57:58.000Z

The nqp binary itself is an ELF file nowadays, so this certainly cannot be shared between architectures. I'm not aware of any bug report with regards to moarvm files. As the one who wrote the compiler backend that writes these files I do know that they are supposed to be arch independent and have e.g. suggested to compile rakudo on a PC and copy the moarvm files to some underpowered embedded system like a Raspberry Pi. The format documentation itself states: ## Endianness All integer values are stored in little endian format. ## Floats Floating point numbers are represented according to IEEE 754

Answer 5 · 2020-08-03T15:54:37.000Z

You're right. I must split nqp package in nqp and nqp-data.

Thanks for the heads-up