Here is a set of patches, for starting discussion...

I only build-tested them natively on/for x86_64 (and
cross built for aarch64 for the sudo one)

On Mon, Mar 30, 2020 at 11:25 PM Vincent Legoll
<vincent.legoll@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hello Mathieu,
>
> On Mon, Mar 30, 2020 at 8:57 AM Mathieu Othacehe <m.othacehe@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Are those changes useful to do on their own ?
> >
> > Well yes it may reduce the closure size of the package (run `guix size
> > sudo`) to get it.
>
> I'm not seeing any size difference, but groff is not in the output:
>
> on master, groff in inputs:
>
> $ ./pre-inst-env guix size sudo
> store item                                                       total    self
> /gnu/store/ahqgl4h89xqj695lgqvsaf6zh2nhy4pj-glibc-2.29
> 37.4    35.8  36.9%
> /gnu/store/2plcy91lypnbbysb18ymnhaw3zwk8pg1-gcc-7.4.0-lib
> 70.0    32.6  33.7%
> /gnu/store/9kzrrccpzl6i1sfwb0drb00gi2gwk0x0-coreutils-8.31
> 90.0    16.5  17.0%
> /gnu/store/vsvba1ilj2zj536pvsil6r0mf5rnjj45-sudo-1.8.31p1
> 96.9     3.5   3.6%
> /gnu/store/dvs3acxwfnwgc7yma6h3y937ri2li47y-gmp-6.1.2
> 72.6     2.6   2.7%
> /gnu/store/vkj5rdiavl87m21d9i0k69rfw79p13gj-linux-pam-1.3.1
> 73.2     2.1   2.2%
> /gnu/store/cp72ncw4prnsga65n3pzll07hpsg524f-bash-static-5.0.7
> 1.6     1.6   1.7%
> /gnu/store/29jhbbg1hf557x8j53f9sxd9imlmf02a-bash-minimal-5.0.7
> 38.4     1.0   1.1%
> /gnu/store/nffbgghxyvrj29lcgxs5fpmi3sx9zzql-acl-2.2.53
> 70.7     0.5   0.5%
> /gnu/store/in1738m2zvhgpz78n2yqa972sdzc42ss-attr-2.4.48
> 70.3     0.3   0.3%
> /gnu/store/qx7p7hiq90mi7r78hcr9cyskccy2j4bg-zlib-1.2.11
> 70.2     0.2   0.2%
> /gnu/store/waw5ci4lazbf2a1x9v6gw1v274nk0gny-libcap-2.27
> 70.2     0.2   0.2%
> total: 96.9 MiB
>
> on a branch with groff in native-inputs:
>
> $ ./pre-inst-env guix size sudo
> store item                                                       total    self
> /gnu/store/ahqgl4h89xqj695lgqvsaf6zh2nhy4pj-glibc-2.29
> 37.4    35.8  36.9%
> /gnu/store/2plcy91lypnbbysb18ymnhaw3zwk8pg1-gcc-7.4.0-lib
> 70.0    32.6  33.7%
> /gnu/store/9kzrrccpzl6i1sfwb0drb00gi2gwk0x0-coreutils-8.31
> 90.0    16.5  17.0%
> /gnu/store/l320ig872ny66d1yi6v7n4zb93iz50dx-sudo-1.8.31p1
> 96.9     3.5   3.6%
> /gnu/store/dvs3acxwfnwgc7yma6h3y937ri2li47y-gmp-6.1.2
> 72.6     2.6   2.7%
> /gnu/store/vkj5rdiavl87m21d9i0k69rfw79p13gj-linux-pam-1.3.1
> 73.2     2.1   2.2%
> /gnu/store/cp72ncw4prnsga65n3pzll07hpsg524f-bash-static-5.0.7
> 1.6     1.6   1.7%
> /gnu/store/29jhbbg1hf557x8j53f9sxd9imlmf02a-bash-minimal-5.0.7
> 38.4     1.0   1.1%
> /gnu/store/nffbgghxyvrj29lcgxs5fpmi3sx9zzql-acl-2.2.53
> 70.7     0.5   0.5%
> /gnu/store/in1738m2zvhgpz78n2yqa972sdzc42ss-attr-2.4.48
> 70.3     0.3   0.3%
> /gnu/store/qx7p7hiq90mi7r78hcr9cyskccy2j4bg-zlib-1.2.11
> 70.2     0.2   0.2%
> /gnu/store/waw5ci4lazbf2a1x9v6gw1v274nk0gny-libcap-2.27
> 70.2     0.2   0.2%
> total: 96.9 MiB
>
> > It can also fix cross-compilation. Because when cross-compiling, if
> > groff needs to be run at build-time, it needs to be for the native
> > architecture and not the target one.
> >
> > You can check it by running `guix build --target=aarch64-linux-gnu sudo`
> > for instance.
>
> That fails on master (libpaper) whereas with the patch it works,
> so I guess the patch is useful on that front.
>
> The patch for sudo will be in the following emails.
>
> Is there anything else to check / test ?
>
> --
> Vincent Legoll



-- 
Vincent Legoll