Building the same code for multiple ISAs


1 Introduction

  Building both 32-bit and 64-bit variants of the same library is now really
  easy.  What's more, adding more ISAs, for example SSE2 is also easy.
  This document explains how to change a 32-bit only spec file to support
  multiple ISAs.

2 Include files

  There are a bunch of include files in the include subdirectory that
  define macros useful for building code for various ISAs:

  base.inc - default macros, used for building 32-bit binaries
             automatically included by Solaris.inc, but you can
             include this to reset macros to the defaults after
	     including one of the other includes below.

  arch64.inc - macros for building 64-bit binaries: amd64 or sparcv9

  x86_sse2.inc - macros for building binaries that make use of Intel SSE2
             extensions.

  You need to include Solaris.inc before including any of these files.

  What they do is, they set macros that define the compiler flags:

  %gcc_optflags - C compiler flags for building with gcc
  %suncc_optflags - C compiler flags for building with Sun Studio cc
  %gcc_cxx_optflags - C++ compiler flags for building with g++
  %suncc_cxx_optflags - C++ compiler flags for building with Sun Studio CC

  %optflags - C compiler flags for the current C compiler ($CC)
  %cxx_optflags - C++ compiler flags for the current C++ compiler ($CXX)

  and update the directory macros for the given architecture:

  %_bindir - set to %{_prefix}/bin/<ISA specific dir>, e.g. /usr/bin/amd64
  %_libdir - same with /usr/lib/<ISA>
  %_libexecdir - same as %_libdir
  %_pkg_config_path - directory that contains the pkgconfig files for
             this ISA, e.g. /usr/lib/sparcv9/pkgconfig

  They also define some handy macros:

  can_isaexec - 1 if multiple ISAs are built, 0 if only 32-bit
                If 1, we can use isaexec to automatically run the
                executable that best matches the current system, see
                details in "Using isaexec" below.
  gtk_doc_option - always set to --disable-gtk-doc for non-default
                ISAs so that we only build the gtk docs for the base ISA.
		In the case of the base ISA, you can continue to the
		--without-gtk-doc or --with-gtk-doc to control whether
		or not to build the gtk-doc API documentation

3 Using the ISA specific include files

  pkgbuild processes the "child" spec files when it reads the %use line.
  Macros defined in the parent spec file before the %use line are visible
  in the child spec file, macros defined or redefined after the %use line
  do not affect the child spec file.

  This means that changing %{_libdir} to /usr/lib/amd64 using %define
  before the %use line will cause the libdir of the child spec to be
  /usr/lib/amd64, if it uses the --libdir=%{_libdir} configure option.
  We can also control the compiler flags used in the child spec by
  defining optflags before the %use line and setting CFLAGS="%optflags"
  in the child spec.

  So adding a new ISA of a library is as simple as including the
  appropriate .inc file (which sets up optflags, _libdir, etc.) and then
  using %use:

    %include Solaris.inc              <- always include before arch64.inc

    %ifarch amd64 sparcv9
    %include arch64.inc               <- sets %optflags, %_libdir, etc.
    %use flac_64 = flac.spec          <- process the child spec
    %endif

    %include base.inc                 <- reset %optflags, %_libdir, etc.
    %use flac = flac.spec             <- process the child spec again
                                         note that we assign a different
                                         label from the 64-bit variant

  Then we add another section for %prep:

    %prep
    rm -rf %name-%version
    mkdir %name-%version

    %ifarch amd64 sparcv9
    mkdir %name-%version/%_arch64
    %flac_64.prep -d %name-%version/%_arch64
    %endif

    mkdir %name-%version/%base_arch
    %flac.prep -d %name-%version/%base_arch

  The above sets up the following directory structure under
  %_topdir/BUILD (considering an amd64 platform for this example):

    .../packages/BUILD
	   |
           +-----> SUNWflac-1.1.4
                       |
                       +-----> i86
                       |        |
                       |        +-----> flac-1.1.4
                       |
                       +-----> amd64
                                |
                                +-----> flac-1.1.4

  Now we need to build both source trees:

    %build
    %ifarch amd64 sparcv9
    %flac_64.build -d %name-%version/%_arch64
    %endif

    %flac.build -d %name-%version/%base_arch

  And then install both trees:

    %install
    rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT

    %ifarch amd64 sparcv9
    %flac_64.install -d %name-%version/%_arch64
    %endif

    %flac.install -d %name-%version/%base_arch

  Finally, update %files to include the 64-bit binaries:

    %ifarch amd64 sparcv9
    %dir %attr (0755, root, bin) %{_bindir}/%{_arch64}
    %{_bindir}/%{_arch64}/*
    %dir %attr (0755, root, bin) %{_libdir}/%{_arch64}
    %{_libdir}/%{_arch64}/lib*.so*
    %endif

  Note that we didn't need to touch base-specs/flac.spec for this.
  We do need to make sure that:
    - it sets CFLAGS="%optflags" and LDFLAGS="%{_ldflags}"
    - it passes at least --libdir=%{_libdir} and --bindir=%{_bindir}
      to configure (for modules using the GNU autotools)

4 Using isaexec

  There is one more trick we can do: setting up the executables so that
  the OS will automatically execute the one best suited for the
  architecture it's running on.

  To do that, we need to move the base executables into a subdirectory
  under the bin directory and hard link /usr/lib/isaexec using the name
  of the executable.  isaexec will look for executables with the same
  name under the ISA-specific subdirectories, in the order printed by
  isalist, for example:

    laca@ultra20:~> isalist
    amd64 pentium_pro+mmx pentium_pro pentium+mmx pentium i486 i386 i86

  I.e. the binary in bin/amd64 will be run if it's found, if not then
  bin/pentium_pro+mmx, etc. finally i86.

  In the following example we're moving the 32-bit "flac" binary into the
  i86 subdir.  Note that the 64-bit version is automatically installed
  in the amd64 subdir, because arch64.inc sets _bindir to
  %{_prefix}/bin/amd64.

  This goes into %install:

    %if %can_isaexec
    mkdir $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_bindir}/%{base_isa}
    cd $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_bindir}
    mv flac metaflac %{base_isa}
    ln -s ../../usr/lib/isaexec flac
    ln -s ../../usr/lib/isaexec metaflac
    %endif

  In the %file list, %{_bindir}/flac and %{_bindir}/metaflac must be
  flagged at hard links using the %hard flag.  You need pkgbuild 1.1.2
  or later for hard links.

    %hard %{_bindir}/flac
    %hard %{_bindir}/metaflac