Nixpkgs: Linking errors on `staging-next`, missing flags

[FRidh]

Issue description

The following issue can be seen on several builds:

https://nix-cache.s3.amazonaws.com/log/piwrmvacwqvzhqa4j2idmrxbz4xcrd6g-timemachine-0.3.1.drv

/nix/store/bxgwclk8kjjczlrkilwb12jhcm0n8syk-binutils-2.30/bin/ld: meters.o: undefined reference to symbol 'log10@@GLIBC_2.2.5'
/nix/store/p8fyjvz3djclmndwxjfcj7zkmx89wniw-glibc-2.27/lib/libm.so.6: error adding symbols: DSO missing from command line
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
make[2]: *** [Makefile:364: timemachine] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory '/build/source/src'
make[1]: *** [Makefile:368: all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/build/source'
make: *** [Makefile:309: all] Error 2
builder for '/nix/store/piwrmvacwqvzhqa4j2idmrxbz4xcrd6g-timemachine-0.3.1.drv' failed with exit code 2

https://nix-cache.s3.amazonaws.com/log/i0h4pfb327cjc8dmp0ypbqzrvsw5ykip-lash-0.5.4.drv

/nix/store/bxgwclk8kjjczlrkilwb12jhcm0n8syk-binutils-2.30/bin/ld: lashd-alsa_mgr.o: undefined reference to symbol 'pthread_cancel@@GLIBC_2.2.5'
/nix/store/p8fyjvz3djclmndwxjfcj7zkmx89wniw-glibc-2.27/lib/libpthread.so.0: error adding symbols: DSO missing from command line
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
make[2]: *** [Makefile:340: lashd] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory '/build/lash-0.5.4/lashd'
make[1]: *** [Makefile:327: all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/build/lash-0.5.4'
make: *** [Makefile:237: all] Error 2
builder for '/nix/store/i0h4pfb327cjc8dmp0ypbqzrvsw5ykip-lash-0.5.4.drv' failed with exit code 2

https://nix-cache.s3.amazonaws.com/log/agp0brdp9s78w8j1zxpg0xwqwrayg4gw-tangogps-0.99.2.drv

/nix/store/bxgwclk8kjjczlrkilwb12jhcm0n8syk-binutils-2.30/bin/ld: callbacks.o: undefined reference to symbol 'acos@@GLIBC_2.2.5'
/nix/store/p8fyjvz3djclmndwxjfcj7zkmx89wniw-glibc-2.27/lib/libm.so.6: error adding symbols: DSO missing from command line
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
make[2]: *** [Makefile:353: tangogps] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory '/build/tangogps-0.99.2/src'
make[1]: *** [Makefile:376: all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/build/tangogps-0.99.2'
make: *** [Makefile:285: all] Error 2
builder for '/nix/store/agp0brdp9s78w8j1zxpg0xwqwrayg4gw-tangogps-0.99.2.drv' failed with exit code 2

Technical details

Please run nix-shell -p nix-info --run "nix-info -m" and paste the
results.

[orivej]

These errors say which library was missing on the command line, e.g. that tangogps is missing -lm.

[FRidh]

It surprised me to see several occurrences of this. It made me wonder whether there have been any underlying changes.

[vcunat]

I find it very likely to have been triggered by #51770. I have a local rebuild in progress verifying that (local revert of that change atop staging-next).

[orivej]

Gentoo is patching them to add the missing libraries:

https://data.gpo.zugaina.org/gentoo/media-sound/timemachine/timemachine-0.3.3-r1.ebuild
https://data.gpo.zugaina.org/gentoo/media-sound/timemachine/files/timemachine-0.3.3-underlinking.patch

https://data.gpo.zugaina.org/gentoo/media-sound/lash/lash-0.5.4-r3.ebuild
https://data.gpo.zugaina.org/gentoo/media-sound/lash/files/lash-0.5.4-underlinking.patch

[vcunat]

Confirmed that was the commit. I haven't looked deeply into this PR/issue, but I expect it will be best to patch the individual expressions, if there aren't too many, e.g. simply extend LDFLAGS for those derivations. I wonder why the error (apparently) doesn't happen on some distributions and does on others.

[pbogdan]

I believe there are approximately 50 expressions that would need patching for x86_64-linux platform based on the latest staging-next evaluation accounting for direct failures from this change.

[pbogdan]

I've been collecting some fixes on https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/compare/staging-next...pbogdan:dt-needed (mostly just adding LDFLAGS as needed, mixed with some patches). As far as differences between Nix(OS) and other distros so far I've seen examples of:

• other distros already patching the issue
• differences in flags propagated from within transitive dependencies via pkg-config
• differences in behaviour of the build system
• differences in configure flags skipping build of some parts of the code

though I haven't inspected each and every failing package beyond adding needed flags (or adding patches where I did).

[vcunat]

We have the problem in master now. @pbogdan: do you know about any "risks" in merging your branch now? I'm looking at it ATM, but I'd prefer your ACK anyway.

[pbogdan]

As you mentioned on the linked PR I'm also unsure what would be the impact on Darwin as I don't really have any means of testing on that platform. I believe that out of the touched expressions / attributes only the following evaluate on Darwin:

• qshowdiff
• texmacs
• tangogps
• libmatchbox
• gqview
• gnuradio
• gitAndTools.svn-all-fast-export
• egoboo
• buddy
• avogadro
• a52dec

I did build all of the directly affected packages on x86_64-linux, at the time I was testing this based on staging-next I couldn't test a build of packages that depend on the expressions touched as IIRC there were other (unrelated) build failures :-(.

[vcunat]

It's in master now. If some of these regressions remained, it would be just a few.