Windows: still 16- and 32-bit-binaries (and possibly a required Security Patch)

[M. Münch]

Hello and all the best for the new year 2024!

 > TL23 itself does not include any 32-bit Windows binaries

wanted to say: \2023\bin\windows does not include any 32-bit Windows 
binaries.

Let's first talk about 16-bit-binaries. Those generally do not run under 
64-bit-Windows, so they need to be replaced at least by 32-bit ones.
Example for 16-bit-binary: \2023\tlpkg\dviout\GRAPHIC\PS\gssub.exe

Possibly required Security Patch:
\2023\tlpkg\installer\xz>xz -V
   xz (XZ Utils) 5.2.5
   liblzma 5.2.5
   and is 32-bit

*_You did apply the Security Patch - see https://tukaani.org/xz/ under 
Security issues - to the xz 5.2.5 in TL, right?! Otherwise you might do 
that asap, please!_* (Or just update to 5.2.9, which does not need the 
patch.)

https://tukaani.org/xz/ says:
   The Windows version of XZ Utils includes binaries for 32-bit and
   64-bit x86.
   5.2.10, 5.2.11, or 5.2.12 do not have anything significant for
   Windows so only 5.2.9 is here. 5.4.x builds are not provided for
   now.
One could go to https://github.com/tukaani-project/xz/releases
download the source and build a 64-bit Windows executable of version
5.4.5, but it might be too much effort, 5.2.9 will be fine (or even the 
patched 5.2.5, but not the unpatched).


A lot of other binaries are 32-bits (examples below). This is no 
problem, because 32-bit Windows binaries can be used under 
64-bit-Windows. On the other hand, if the main binaries are 64-bit ones 
and therefore the whole TL on Windows requires a 64bit version of the 
OS, then (more of) the contained binaries could be the 64-bit version of 
the programs. Just a suggestion for TL 2024, if somebody is bored and 
has nothing to do...

Some 32-bit-exe-s in TL 2023 @ Windows:

\2023\tlpkg\installer\lz4>lz4.exe -V
   *** LZ4 command line interface 32-bits v1.9.3, by Yann Collet ***
   while lz4.exe -V from https://github.com/lz4/lz4/releases (Aug 16,
     2022)
   *** LZ4 command line interface 64-bits v1.9.4, by Yann Collet ***

\2023\tlpkg\installer\curl>curl -V
   curl 7.66.0 (i386-pc-win32) libcurl/7.66.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1d zlib/1.2.11
     libssh2/1.9.0
     Release-Date: 2019-09-11
   while https://curl.se/windows/ provides for Windows:
     64-bit curl version: 8.5.0
     Build: 8.5.0_4
     Date: 2023-12-06

\2023\tlpkg\installer\wget>wget -V
   GNU Wget 1.21.3 built on mingw32
   and is 32-bit, while current wget, https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/wget/, is
   1.21.4 and could be compiled for 64bit

\2023\tlpkg\installer>tar --version
   GNU tar 1.11.8 + 2.2(WIN32)

and there is
   2023\tlpkg\asymptote
   as well as
   \2023\tlpkg\asymptote64

also \2023\tlpkg\dviout
contains a lot of 32bit-exe-s (and no 64-bit one)

and \2023\tlpkg\texworks\texworks.exe
is 32-bit.

So, everything works (except gssub.exe!), but in the long run probably 
should be replaced by their 64-bit-versions, right?

Btw: Easy way to check whether 32 or 64 bit:
https://learn.microsoft.com/de-de/sysinternals/downloads/sigcheck
sigcheck.exe SomeBinary.exe
prints some lines of info about SomeBinary.exe, last line:
"MachineType:    64-bit" or 32-bit respectively
(gives "MachineType:    n/a" for the 16-bit gssub.exe).

Yours

Martin