Would it make sense to sort package inputs when computing derivations to prevent this sort of unintentional change?  I don't think the input order is important for the build, so this seems like it could be relatively simple to implement & avoid this recurring.

On November 1, 2024 5:20:51 PM PDT, Vagrant Cascadian <vagrant@debian.org> wrote:
>A large rebuild was triggered by:
>
>commit a9abf9a7b30f6801e122cae759df87b44c458773
>Author: Sharlatan Hellseher <sharlatanus@gmail.com>
>Date:   Fri Nov 1 21:10:04 2024 +0000
>
>    gnu: python-dbus-python: Fix indentation.
>
>    * gnu/packages/python-xyz.scm (python-dbus-python): Fix indentation,
>    adjust order of fields, sort inputs alphabetically.
>
>    Change-Id: I895518f041bd2cfc9c2f94774a9d1db47b26ffc3
>
>Guix refresh claims this would trigger 3987 builds on x86_64-linux, and
>ci is cranking away at over 13000 builds across several architectures:
>
>   https://ci.guix.gnu.org/eval/1772855
>
>Anyone able to cancel that evaluation?
>
>
>I pushed a commit reverting the ordering changes, which I think appears
>to not trigger the rebuild:
>
>commit ea11d3608566174c4bae70faa4f9d0c67748d2db
>Author: Vagrant Cascadian <vagrant@debian.org>
>Date:   Fri Nov 1 16:55:02 2024 -0700
>
>    gnu: python-dbus-python: Revert ordering change on native-inputs.
>
>    A large number of rebuilds (3987 according to guix refresh) was triggered by:
>
>      a9abf9a7b30f6801e122cae759df87b44c458773 gnu: python-dbus-python: Fix
>      indentation.
>
>    Reverting the ordering changes does not trigger any rebuilds.
>
>    * gnu/packages/python-xyz.scm (python-dbus-python): Unsort native-inputs.
>
>
>Hopefully that was the right thing to do!
>
>
>live well,
>  vagrant