[Rpm-maint] [patch] noarch subpackages

[Pixel]

Michal Marek <mmarek at suse.cz> writes:

> I'm wondering - doesn't RPM support creating anyarch + noarch
> subpackages in one build simply because it has never had the feature in
> first place and no-one implemented it so far (for backwards
> compatibility reasons perhaps)? Or are there good reasons not to allow this?

Jeff Johnson has been talking about this lately:

          So an implementation permitting noarch (or any
          other arch) sub-packages is quite feasible, always
          has been, an easy hack.

http://www.mail-archive.com/rpm-devel@rpm5.org/msg02055.html
http://www.mail-archive.com/rpm-devel@rpm5.org/msg00211.html

but afaik this doesn't mention how to precise this in spec file.

for the record, instead of %_noarch_packages, we could use BuildArch
and still be backward compatible (as far as i have tested...):

- force "BuildArch: %_target_cpu" in main package
- add "BuildArch: noarch" to sub-packages which should be noarch

since currently rpm takes the first BuildArch 
(tested on rpm 4.4.2.3 and 4.4.8)