classabbyamp
commented
3 months ago you can already do this by setting XBPS_ARCH/XBPS_TARGET_ARCH and using -r for an alternate root (this is how xbps-src does cross-compiling)
formalising tooling for this is discussed in https://github.com/void-linux/void-packages/issues/27337
To be honest, i don't like apt and debian in general.
but one of the greatest feature of debian, is "multiarch":
https://wiki.debian.org/Multiarch/HOWTO
With this, you can be on a x86_64 machine, but you can install all the dependecies of your software in armhf and cross compile your software for armhf.
i think this feature is very handy for developers who are cross compiling software for different cpu architecture.(for example embedded developers)