[debian-mysql] Bug#920365: mariadb_config: improve cross compilation support

[Sergei Golubchik]

Hi, Helmut!

On Aug 13, Helmut Grohne wrote:
> 
> On Sat, Jan 26, 2019 at 07:37:14PM +0100, Sergei Golubchik wrote:
> > I would say that when cross-compiling mariadb_config should be built
> > for the host architecture.
> 
> That is the status quo, but I guess you're confusing terms here.
> Please refer to man dpkg-architecture for what build/host/target mean.
> 
> > You'll get "Exec format error" if you run'll run it on the target
> > architecture, but that should not be a problem, as you will not need
> > to run mariadb_config on the target architecture. Because
> > mariadb_config is a helper tool to build applications, and you build
> > on the host architecture for the target architecture. You don't need
> > mariadb_config to use libmariadb.
> 
> I'm going to assume that whenever you write "target" you actually mean
> "host" and whenever you write "host" you actually mean "build".
> Otherwise this paragraph doesn't make any sense at all.

Yes, that's what I mean, thanks.
I didn't know debian has a defined terminology for this.

> I kinda agree that you'd want to have mariadb_config for the build
> architecture, but that's not what is currently happening nor is it
> reasonably achievable. Currently, mariadb_config is shipped with
> libmariadb-dev and you need libmariadb-dev for the host architecture
> (for linking it). Thus mariadb_config is a host architecture
> executable and cannot be run.

Ok. Two thoughts. First, libmariadb comes with mariadb.pc pkg-config
file. Does it have all you need to build? If not, we can, perhaps, add
missing info to it.

Second, binary mariadb_config does nothing else but printing a set of
string. If there's no other choice, we could consider providing a shell
script with the same functionality too.

Regards,
Sergei
VP of MariaDB Server Engineering
and security at mariadb.org