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