See https://github.com/smxi/inxi: it's a Perl script that calls various
programs (if it finds them) _at runtime_.

Basically inxi makes a number of `system PROGRAM` calls, where PROGRAM
is found in the PATH environment variable.

Because most of those dependencies are optional, it could be nice not
depend on them.  Which means no input at build-time.  But then we cannot
substitute the relative paths by the static full path to the store.

Another approach would be to _not_ have optional dependencies are go
more Nix-y as you suggest with including all the required programs as
input and storing their full path inside the inxi script.

This is hard though, because it implies parsing a huge Perl script...


We could also go the dead-simple way: leave PATH and paths to their
current values: the only downside I see is that inxi could pententially
call programs of the same name installed in user-specific folders
(e.g. ~/.local/bin).

--
Pierre Neidhardt

To save a single life is better than to build a seven story pagoda.