On Friday 2023-11-10 18:44, Michal Suchánek wrote: >> It's a complicated mumble-jumble. Prior art exists as in: >> >> /opt/vendorThing/bin/... >> /usr/X11R6/lib/libXi.so.6 [host binary] >> /usr/x86_64-w64-mingw32/bin/as [host binary] >> /usr/x86_64-w64-mingw32/sys-root/mingw/bin/as.exe [foreign binary] >> /usr/platform/SUNW,Ultra-2/lib/libprtdiag_psr.so.1 [looks foreign] >> >> The use of suffix-based naming must have been established sometime >> near the end of the 90s or the start of 2000s as the first biarch >> Linux distros emerged. Probably in gcc or glibc sources one will find >> the root of where the use of suffix identifiers like /usr/lib64 >> started. Leaves the question open "why". > >That's pretty clear: to be able to install libraries for multiple >architectures at the same time. Well, what I tried to express or imply was something like: “ we could (should?) have used /usr/<triplet>/lib rather than /usr/lib<suffixortriplet> all along, because at some point, there *will* be someone who wants to provide not only arch-different libraries, but *also* arch-different binaries (for whatever reason).