32-bit package guidelines#

Legacy 32-bit software can be built and installed on machines of another native architecture, such as x86_64. This article explains the production and conventions of such packages.

Package naming#

• Prefix 32-bit versions of native packages with lib32-.
• Package decriptions should distinguish these from native counterparts, i.e. pkgdesc+=" (32-bit)".

Variables and parameters#

lib32#

Specify these bash variables in a PKGBUILD to tell the compiler to output 32-bit code:

export CFLAGS+=" -m32"
export CXXFLAGS+=" -m32"
export LDFLAGS+=" -m32"
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH='/usr/lib32/pkgconfig'

File placement#

Ensure lib32 package files do not conflict with native package files and include all necessary files, such as architecture-specific includes. For example, if a package builds using GNU Autoconf, specify the following to configure:

--program-suffix="-32" \
--lib{exec,}dir=/usr/lib32 \
--includedir=/usr/include/"$pkgbase"32 \
--build=i686-pc-linux-gnu

If a package builds using Meson, specify the following to arch-meson:

--cross-file lib32