toplevel: define a "static-x86_64" and "static-aarch64" host, to experiment with static linking

progress is early, and it's unclear if the work the make gtk, opengl, etc compatible with such a system will ever be feasible

impure.nix

@@ -57,11 +57,27 @@ let
   # but i want these a little more normalized, which is possible either here, or
   # by assigning `boot.kernelPackages`.
   # elaborate = system: system;
-  elaborate = system: let
+  elaborate = system: { static ? false }: let
-    e = lib.systems.elaborate system;
+    abi = if static then "musl" else "gnu";
+    e = lib.systems.elaborate {
+      # N.B.: "static" can mean a few things:
+      # 1. binaries should be linked statically (stdenv.hostPlatform.isStatic == true).
+      # 2. host libc doesn't support dlopen (stdenv.hostPlatform.hasSharedLibraries == false).
+      #
+      # nixpkgs' `pkgsStatic` is the stricter meaning of "static": no `.so` files, period.
+      # this means plugin-heavy frameworks like `gobject-introspection` probably just cannot ever work (?).
+      # TODO: i'd _prefer_ to use the weaker kind of "static", and support all the traditional packages,
+      # but for now that actually results in fewer working packages (e.g. `xdg-dbus-proxy`).
+      system = "${system}-${abi}";
+      isStatic = static;
+      # hasSharedLibraries = true;
+    };
   in
-    {
+    e // {
-      inherit system;
+      extensions = e.extensions // {
+        # when `hasSharedLibraries` == false, need to explicitly set this here to fix eval of many packages. this is not a long-term fix.
+        sharedLibrary = ".so";
+      };
       linux-kernel = {
         inherit (e.linux-kernel) name baseConfig target;
       } // (lib.optionalAttrs (e.linux-kernel ? DTB) { inherit (e.linux-kernel) DTB; }) // {
@@ -86,22 +102,24 @@ let
   hosts = builtins.foldl'
     # XXX: i `elaborate` localSystem the same as i do `system` because otherwise nixpkgs
     # sees they're (slightly) different and forces everything down the (expensive) cross-compilation path.
-    (acc: host: acc // mkHost ({ localSystem = elaborate localSystem; } // host))
+    (acc: host: acc // mkHost ({ localSystem = elaborate localSystem {}; } // host))
     {}
     [
       # real hosts:
       # { name = "crappy"; system = "armv7l-linux";  }
-      { name = "cadey";  system = elaborate "aarch64-linux";  }
+      { name = "cadey";  system = elaborate "aarch64-linux" {};  }
-      { name = "desko";  system = elaborate "x86_64-linux";  }
+      { name = "desko";  system = elaborate "x86_64-linux" {};  }
-      { name = "flowy";  system = elaborate "x86_64-linux";  }
+      { name = "flowy";  system = elaborate "x86_64-linux" {};  }
-      { name = "lappy";  system = elaborate "x86_64-linux";  }
+      { name = "lappy";  system = elaborate "x86_64-linux" {};  }
-      { name = "moby";   system = elaborate "aarch64-linux"; }
+      { name = "moby";   system = elaborate "aarch64-linux" {}; }
-      { name = "servo";  system = elaborate "x86_64-linux";  }
+      { name = "servo";  system = elaborate "x86_64-linux" {};  }
 
-      { name = "rescue"; system = elaborate "x86_64-linux";  }
+      { name = "rescue"; system = elaborate "x86_64-linux" {};  }
       # pseudo hosts used for debugging
-      { name = "baseline-x86_64";  system = elaborate "x86_64-linux";  }
+      { name = "baseline-x86_64";  system = elaborate "x86_64-linux" {};  }
-      { name = "baseline-aarch64";  system = elaborate "aarch64-linux";  }
+      { name = "baseline-aarch64";  system = elaborate "aarch64-linux" {};  }
+      { name = "static-x86_64";  system = elaborate "x86_64-linux" { static = true; }; }
+      { name = "static-aarch64";  system = elaborate "aarch64-linux" { static = true; };  }
     ];
 
   # subAttrNames :: AttrSet -> [ String ]

overlays/all.nix

@@ -5,14 +5,16 @@ let
   pkgs = import ./pkgs.nix;
   preferences = import ./preferences.nix;
   cross = import ./cross.nix;
+  static = import ./static.nix;
   pkgs-ccache = import ./pkgs-ccache.nix;
   pkgs-debug = import ./pkgs-debug.nix;
 in
 final: prev:
 let
-
+  optional = cond: overlay: if cond then overlay else (_: _: {});
   isCross = prev.stdenv.hostPlatform != prev.stdenv.buildPlatform;
-  ifCross = overlay: if isCross then overlay else (_: _: {});
+  # isCross = !(prev.stdenv.buildPlatform.canExecute prev.stdenv.hostPlatform);
+  isStatic = prev.stdenv.hostPlatform.isStatic;
   renderOverlays = overlays: builtins.foldl'
     (acc: thisOverlay: acc // (thisOverlay final acc))
     prev
@@ -21,7 +23,8 @@ in
   renderOverlays [
     pkgs
     preferences
-    (ifCross cross)
+    (optional isCross cross)
+    (optional isStatic static)
     pkgs-ccache
     pkgs-debug
   ]

overlays/static.nix

@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+final: prev:
+with final;
+let
+  inherit (stdenv.hostPlatform) hasSharedLibraries;
+in
+{
+  # glibcLocales is null on musl, but some packages still refer to it.
+  # is this sensible? idk.
+  glibcLocales = final.pkgsCross.gnu64.glibcLocales;
+
+  # nixpkgs' gobject-introspection has all `isStatic` platforms as badPlatforms,
+  # but hopefully it's just `hasSharedLibraries == false` that's broken (untested)
+  # gobject-introspection = prev.gobject-introspection.overrideAttrs (upstream: {
+  #   meta = upstream.meta // {
+  #     badPlatforms = [];
+  #   };
+  # });
+
+  # gobject-introspection = if hasSharedLibraries then prev.gobject-introspection else null;
+
+  libglvnd = prev.libglvnd.overrideAttrs (upstream: {
+    meta = upstream.meta // {
+      # mark as not bad, to unblock an assertion in SDL3.
+      #
+      # glvnd claims static linking isn't supported, but i think they're actually
+      # talking about the case of `dlopen` not being available. there's a different stdenv attr to check for that.
+      # <https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/glvnd/libglvnd/-/issues/212>
+      badPlatforms = [];
+    };
+  });
+
+  # networkmanager = prev.networkmanager.override {
+  #   gobject-introspection = if hasSharedLibraries then gobject-introspection else null;
+  # };
+
+  # sdl3 = prev.sdl3.override {
+  #   # ibusMinimal -> gobject-introspection -> doesn't eval.
+  #   # TODO: upstream this fix, or a patch that build ibus w/o introspection.
+  #   ibusSupport = !hasSharedLibraries;
+  # };
+}

pkgs/by-name/nixpkgs-bootstrap/mkNixpkgs.nix

@@ -142,15 +142,37 @@ let
       '';
     };
 
-    nixpkgsArgs = commonNixpkgsArgs // {
+    nativeNixpkgsArgs = commonNixpkgsArgs // {
       config = {
         allowUnfree = true;  # NIXPKGS_ALLOW_UNFREE=1
         allowBroken = true;  # NIXPKGS_ALLOW_BROKEN=1
+        allowUnsupportedSystem = true;  # NIXPKGS_ALLOW_UNSUPPORTED_SYSTEM=1
       };
-    } // optionalAttrs (system != localSystem) {
+    };
+    nixpkgsArgs = nativeNixpkgsArgs // optionalAttrs (system != localSystem) {
       # XXX(2023/12/11): cache.nixos.org uses `system = ...` instead of `hostPlatform.system`, and that choice impacts the closure of every package.
       # so avoid specifying hostPlatform.system on non-cross builds, so i can use upstream caches.
       crossSystem = system;
+      # config = nativeNixpkgsArgs.config // optionalAttrs (system.isStatic && system.hasSharedLibraries) {
+      #   # default nixpkgs' behavior when `isStatic` is to _never_ build shared objects.
+      #   replaceCrossStdenv = { buildPackages, baseStdenv }: baseStdenv.override (old: {
+      #     # mkDerivationFromStdenv = _stdenv: args: baseStdenv.mkDerivation (args // {
+      #     #   dontAddStaticConfigureFlags = args.dontAddStaticConfigureFlags or true;
+      #     # });
+      #     # mkDerivationFromStdenv = _stdenv: args: (baseStdenv.mkDerivation args).overrideAttrs (prev: {
+      #     #   dontAddStaticConfigureFlags = prev.dontAddStaticConfigureFlags or true;
+      #     #     # dontAddStaticConfigureFlags = args.dontAddStaticConfigureFlags or true;
+      #     # });
+      #     mkDerivationFromStdenv = _stdenv: args: (baseStdenv.mkDerivation args).overrideAttrs (prev: {
+      #       # this is not wholly correct; goal is to undo some effects of pkgs/stdenv/adapters.nix' makeStatic
+      #       # to build BOTH .a and .so files (but default to static)
+      #       configureFlags = buildPackages.lib.remove "--disable-shared" (prev.configureFlags or args.configureFlags or []);
+      #       # cmakeFlags = buildPackages.lib.remove "-DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS:BOOL=OFF" (
+      #       #   buildPackages.lib.remove "-DCMAKE_SKIP_INSTALL_RPATH=On" (prev.cmakeFlags or args.cmakeFlags or [])
+      #       # );
+      #     });
+      #   });
+      # };
     };
     nixpkgs = import patchedSrc nixpkgsArgs;
   in

pkgs/by-name/nixpkgs-bootstrap/patches.nix

@@ -66,6 +66,12 @@ in
     hash = "sha256-zfGymC2uUpq10tr4LHLv3vQUmDe8zbL3Qm7sV/AzsQY=";
   })
 
+  (fetchpatch' {
+    name = "openssh: fix compilation to static hosts";
+    prUrl = "https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/420469";
+    hash = "sha256-mMJSb7Q+zFuTlCzwfGGaix17nitAK9Q9Syxxc2jqUy8=";
+  })
+
   # (fetchpatch' {
   #   # XXX(2025-01-06): patch does not produce valid binaries for cross
   #   name = "lua-language-server: fix cross compiling";