[feature] install system packages without architecture

[ericLemanissier]

Currently, recipes with arch settings trying to install system packages always install the system package with architecture matching the profile. This makes xorg/system fail on some distros (alma, Fedora and Centos), because some of the system packages do not have an architecture:
the failures:

• https://github.com/bincrafters/system-packages-checks/actions/runs/3266259888/jobs/5369817368#step:6:191
• https://github.com/bincrafters/system-packages-checks/actions/runs/3266259888/jobs/5369817556#step:6:180
• https://github.com/bincrafters/system-packages-checks/actions/runs/3266259888/jobs/5369816469#step:6:263
• https://github.com/bincrafters/system-packages-checks/actions/runs/3266259888/jobs/5369819520#step:6:238
• https://github.com/bincrafters/system-packages-checks/actions/runs/3266259888/jobs/5369819717#step:6:198
• https://github.com/bincrafters/system-packages-checks/actions/runs/3266259888/jobs/5369817145#step:6:244

these two system packages have no arch, cf!

• https://almalinux.pkgs.org/9/almalinux-appstream-x86_64/xkeyboard-config-devel-2.33-2.el9.noarch.rpm.html
• https://almalinux.pkgs.org/9/almalinux-crb-x86_64/xorg-x11-xtrans-devel-1.4.0-8.el9.noarch.rpm.html

We could consider adding a method like _SystemPackageManagerTool.install_archless(...) ? Or an automatic fallback to archless if there is no existing package for the setting's arch ?

• I've read the CONTRIBUTING guide.

[memsharded]

But wouldn't install_archless() fail in the system that use the architecture?
Does those distributions lack the specific architecture packages for all packages or just a few? If they are missing all architecture packages, then it seems it should be a conf that enables opting-out of the architecture behavior?

[ericLemanissier]

for the two packages which currently fail (xorg-x11-xtrans-devel and xkeyboard-config-devel), they are .noarch on all distros using dnf or yum (https://pkgs.org/search/?q=xorg-x11-xtrans-devel and https://pkgs.org/search/?q=xkeyboard-config-devel). They are .noarch because they only contain text files.
I am currently testing all the system packages currently on CCI:

• libudev: allow cross compilation conan-center-index#13565
• vdpau: allow cross compilation conan-center-index#13566
• vaapi: allow cross compilation conan-center-index#13567
• gtk/system: allow cross compilation conan-center-index#13568
• glu: allow cross compilation conan-center-index#13569
• opengl: use new system helpers conan-center-index#13570
• egl: use new system helper conan-center-index#13571

EDIT: the failures I got in https://bincrafters.github.io/system-packages-checks/ are on:

• vaapi and vdpau, which is the exact same failure as xorg/system, because vaapi and vdpau's test recipe require xorg/system
• glu on jammy and kinetic is unrelated

So in the end I feel confident that calling dnf.install_archless(["xorg-x11-xtrans-devel", "xkeyboard-config-devel"]) and yum.install_archless(["xorg-x11-xtrans-devel", "xkeyboard-config-devel"]) in xorg/system would fix the problem without breaking CCI packages

[jothalha]

Just as an fyi the arch check also fails on ubuntu jammy for xorg for the same reason if the packages are already installed:

dpkg-query: no packages found matching xtrans-dev:amd64
dpkg-query: no packages found matching xkb-data:amd64

would be good to have a install_archless method for apt as well

[ericLemanissier]

This is linked to conan-io/conan-center-index#13588

[ericLemanissier]

Actually, xtrans and xkeyboard-config system packages have no arch on all the system package managers handled by conan, so I created xtrans/system and xkeyboard-config/system recipes without arch setting. a dedicated install_archless is not actually needed

[czoido]

We close this, although we know that is not completely addressed in #12349
There's a workaround to install packages without architecture using:

Apt(self, arch_names={}).install(["archless-package"], update=True, check=True)

But I'll open a new issue to improve UX for this.