Re: lib64 and --disable-multilib

[Shaun Jackman <sjackman at gmail dot com>]

On 9 September 2014 11:10, Andrew Haley <aph@redhat.com> wrote:
> On 09/09/2014 06:57 PM, Shaun Jackman wrote:
>> Hi. I compiled gcc with --disable-multilib on an x86-64 system and
>> expected GCC libraries to be installed in $prefix/lib, but found them
>> instead installed in $prefix/lib64.
>
> That's right: it's the standard place for 64-bit x86-64 libraries.
>
>> Is there a configure option to
>> override this behaviour and install libraries in $prefix/lib? If not,
>> should simply moving the libraries to $prefix/lib work?
>
> Umm, why would you want to?

Hi, Andrew.

I understand lib64 has a vital purpose on a multilib system. On a
non-multilib system, it seems odd to me to have a populated lib64
directory and an empty lib directory. It's tidier (in my opinion) to
just name the directory lib.

Most open-source software after `./configure && make install` install
libraries into $prefix/lib, not $prefix/lib64. I installed 139 open
source packages on this system, and only four packages installed
libraries in lib64: gcc, git, libffi and r. To have a system with a
consistent directory structure, I'd rather modify those four packages
that use lib64 to use lib, rather than modify 135 packages to use
lib64.

Cheers,
Shaun