Backup Bouncer

Question

Backup Bouncer is a backup test suite. Is your backup identical? Find out.
Unfortunately, it might have to be ported to Linux.

Answer 1

If the architecture of the target machine is the same as that of the machine on which the binary file has been combined then it shouldn't be a problem otherwise you have to check for what architectures the file has been compiled. This is easily done using the lipo command. E.g. Running the command:
lipo -info /usr/local/bin/rsync
gives the output:
Non-fat file: /usr/local/bin/rsync is architecture: x86_64
while lipo -info /usr/bin/rsync gives:
Architectures in the fat file: /usr/bin/rsync are: x86_64 i386
So I cannot use either of these files on my Powerbook G4 for example.
But it isn't always that simple. As far as I know one should be able to run i386 binaries also on x86_64.
You can also compile binaries for a different architectures than your own. This is most easily done through XCode (click on the Info button and choose what architectures to build for) but can also be achieved on the command line by slightly modifying the make files. The exact change will depend on the software which you are trying to compile but at the end of the day it all boils down to passing more architectures as arguments to the compiler.