Cross-compilation broken on canonical packages.

[Mathieu Othacehe]

Hello,

This command fails:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
guix build -e "((@ (gnu packages base) canonical-package) (@ (gnu packages 
base) grep))"
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

with this output:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
building /gnu/store/nlq0iw749hnyy7nk3cq6pjwqkxv437ca-make-boot0-4.2.1.drv...
starting phase `set-SOURCE-DATE-EPOCH'
phase `set-SOURCE-DATE-EPOCH' succeeded after 0.0 seconds
starting phase `set-paths'
environment variable `PATH' set to 
`/gnu/store/36zgy21hfy185nmdgj87ll6q4hj5riiw-gcc-cross-aarch64-linux-gnu-7.4.0/bin:/gnu/store/4d68mhjjwqc95lyrm63yrsnrlqzkbpyr-binutils-cross-aarch64-linux-gnu-2.32/bin'
environment variable `CROSS_LIBRARY_PATH' set to 
`/gnu/store/pgg0nxh1l39dybb5pwqyskb9qxqz57r9-glibc-mesboot-2.16.0/lib:/gnu/store/p0s4wym402gsnqzicr87zrli43dvfbms-binutils-mesboot-2.20.1a/lib:/gnu/store/bb6s2y6121pxvhwyr1n6dg7pwj88bsbj-gcc-mesboot-4.9.4/lib:/gnu/store/p5r7gprzg774vq8l94924m598i86ryya-glibc-cross-aarch64-linux-gnu-2.29/lib:/gnu/store/z86g7zwj2mdl1328qpgmim262sppjxqp-glibc-cross-aarch64-linux-gnu-2.29-static/lib'
environment variable `CROSS_CPATH' set to 
`/gnu/store/pgg0nxh1l39dybb5pwqyskb9qxqz57r9-glibc-mesboot-2.16.0/include:/gnu/store/p0s4wym402gsnqzicr87zrli43dvfbms-binutils-mesboot-2.20.1a/include:/gnu/store/bb6s2y6121pxvhwyr1n6dg7pwj88bsbj-gcc-mesboot-4.9.4/include:/gnu/store/bp1ap2whzmwvh2myj31hfmg9pi4sly0r-linux-libre-headers-bootstrap-0/include:/gnu/store/p5r7gprzg774vq8l94924m598i86ryya-glibc-cross-aarch64-linux-gnu-2.29/include:/gnu/store/f3izsng5fzwh6zf2z7aaj5v04jp5hmcy-linux-libre-headers-cross-aarch64-linux-gnu-4.19.56/include'
environment variable `GUIX_LOCPATH' unset
environment variable `C_INCLUDE_PATH' set to 
`/gnu/store/36zgy21hfy185nmdgj87ll6q4hj5riiw-gcc-cross-aarch64-linux-gnu-7.4.0/include'
environment variable `CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH' set to 
`/gnu/store/36zgy21hfy185nmdgj87ll6q4hj5riiw-gcc-cross-aarch64-linux-gnu-7.4.0/include'
environment variable `LIBRARY_PATH' set to 
`/gnu/store/36zgy21hfy185nmdgj87ll6q4hj5riiw-gcc-cross-aarch64-linux-gnu-7.4.0/lib'
environment variable `C_INCLUDE_PATH' set to 
`/gnu/store/36zgy21hfy185nmdgj87ll6q4hj5riiw-gcc-cross-aarch64-linux-gnu-7.4.0/include'
phase `set-paths' succeeded after 0.0 seconds
starting phase `install-locale'
warning: failed to install 'en_US.utf8' locale: Invalid argument
phase `install-locale' succeeded after 0.0 seconds
starting phase `unpack'
In execvp of tar: No such file or directory
command "tar" "xvf" 
"/gnu/store/cr04i9xi5nbkn7lqb1nnxkqvpwy92m78-make-4.2.1.tar.xz" failed with 
status 127
builder for `/gnu/store/nlq0iw749hnyy7nk3cq6pjwqkxv437ca-make-boot0-4.2.1.drv' 
failed with exit code 1
build of /gnu/store/nlq0iw749hnyy7nk3cq6pjwqkxv437ca-make-boot0-4.2.1.drv failed
View build log at 
'/var/log/guix/drvs/nl/q0iw749hnyy7nk3cq6pjwqkxv437ca-make-boot0-4.2.1.drv.gz'.
cannot build derivation 
`/gnu/store/xpb7jhgjghxy624gz7rfy5zb8rsdri3i-grep-3.3.drv': 1 dependencies 
couldn't be built
guix build: error: build of 
`/gnu/store/xpb7jhgjghxy624gz7rfy5zb8rsdri3i-grep-3.3.drv' failed
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

This is topic has already been discussed here[1][2]. Usually I work around it
by passing "--no-grafts" or avoiding canonical-packages.

Now that cross compiling a system is possible, avoiding canonical
packages is hard (used in %base-packages and "system" derivation).

Any ideas where to start on this problem?

Thanks,

Mathieu

[1]: 
https://guix-devel.gnu.narkive.com/LsByvXrK/cross-building-bootstrap-binaries-fail-in-current-master#post5
[2]: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-guix/2017-10/msg00101.html