Scott Ritchie skrev:
Agreed. The one tricky thing here is making a proper "source" package. There is some precedent for source packages that don't actually build on the architecture they're for. The ia32-libs package, for instance, contains both binary and source versions of the 32 bit libraries since it's solely for 64 bit arches, however to build those binaries requires use of a 32 bit system.
Similarly, we can ship a wine-gecko "source" package which includes binary and source, with the readme detailing how to actually build the binary from the source (ie, use Windows). Meanwhile the source package "builds" by just copying the binary into the right place (much like how ia32-libs builds).
Debian would not accept this into main. Perhaps into contrib, maybe. For example, DFSG-free Java programs that must be compiled with a non-free Java compiler (because the free compilers aren't good enough) goes into contrib, not main (though even here, it should be possible to auto-rebuild the package).
Debian's ia32-libs package isn't an example of a whole lot. It grabs compiled binaries from the official Debian archive, and nowhere else. It isn't built on a 32-bit system. If ia32-libs had contained binaries that could not be built 100% automatically using Debian's official archive (and only the official archive), it probably wouldn't have gotten into Debian. Besides, ia32-libs is not meant to be a long-lived package, it'll go away eventually.