i'll be moving the SYMLINK_LIB multilib handling to a subdir of the current 
multilib set.  this way we can keep the base multilib matching the upstream 
packages, and it's easier to eventually migrate away from the symlinked 
libdir.  and merging of the mips multilib settings into the base.
-mike

--- arch/amd64/parent
+++ arch/amd64/parent
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 ../base
-../../features/multilib
+../../features/multilib/lib32
--- arch/amd64-fbsd/parent
+++ arch/amd64-fbsd/parent
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 ../base
-../../features/multilib
+../../features/multilib/lib32
--- arch/mips/mips64/multilib/parent
+++ arch/mips/mips64/multilib/parent
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 ..
-../../../../features/multilib
+../../../../features/multilib/lib32
--- arch/mips/mipsel/mips64el/multilib/parent
+++ arch/mips/mipsel/mips64el/multilib/parent
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 ..
-../../../../../features/multilib
+../../../../../features/multilib/lib32
--- default/linux/sparc/experimental/multilib/parent
+++ default/linux/sparc/experimental/multilib/parent
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 ..
 ../../../../../releases/10.0
-../../../../../features/multilib
+../../../../../features/multilib/lib32
--- features/32bit-userland/parent
+++ features/32bit-userland/parent
@@ -1 +1 @@
-../multilib
+../multilib/lib32
--- features/multilib/make.defaults
+++ features/multilib/make.defaults
@@ -10,9 +10,6 @@ MULTILIB_STRICT_DIRS="/lib32 /lib /usr/l
 MULTILIB_STRICT_DENY="64-bit.*shared object"
 MULTILIB_STRICT_EXEMPT="(perl5|gcc|gcc-lib|binutils|eclipse-3|debug|portage)"
 
-# Let baselayout create the lib symlink.
-SYMLINK_LIB="yes"
-
 # 64-bit LIBDIR
 LIBDIR_amd64="lib64"
 LIBDIR_amd64_fbsd="lib64"
@@ -20,7 +17,7 @@ LIBDIR_ppc64="lib64"
 LIBDIR_sparc64="lib64"
 
 # 32-bit LIBDIR
-LIBDIR_ppc="lib32"
-LIBDIR_x86="lib32"
-LIBDIR_x86_fbsd="lib32"
-LIBDIR_sparc32="lib32"
+LIBDIR_ppc="lib"
+LIBDIR_x86="lib"
+LIBDIR_x86_fbsd="lib"
+LIBDIR_sparc32="lib"
--- /dev/null
+++ features/multilib/lib32/make.defaults
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+# Copyright 1999-2011 Gentoo Foundation
+# Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2
+# $Header: $
+
+# Let baselayout create the lib symlink.
+SYMLINK_LIB="yes"
+
+# 32-bit LIBDIR
+LIBDIR_ppc="lib32"
+LIBDIR_x86="lib32"
+LIBDIR_x86_fbsd="lib32"
+LIBDIR_sparc32="lib32"