Multilib and Linux.

[Philip Blundell]

>Have you thought that every single .o/.a/.so file used by linker and
>run-time linker may have to have a copy for each ABI if ABIs are
>totally incompatible? How do you deal with XFree86, KDE, GNOME, ....

I don't think this is a big deal.  For .o and .a files you just need to have 
two parallel toolchains, one set up as a cross-compiler, and keep the .o and 
.a files for that ABI contained in the appropriate directories.  You probably 
need separate builds of gas, ld and so on in any case.

Almost all the time there is one ABI that is the default for a particular 
machine, and others are for special purposes or compatibility with other 
hardware.

>What is the default ABI?

This is an issue for the people who make distributions to deal with.  If there 
really are two ABIs with nothing to choose between them, just pick one and say 
that this is the standard Linux ABI.

p.