Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> writes:

> Hi,
>
> Christopher Baines <mail@cbaines.net> skribis:
>
>> To ensure that it just returns a single package record for some given
>> arguments, as this helps to avoid poor performance of the store connection
>> object cache.
>>
>> * gnu/packages/base.scm (make-ld-wrapper): Move code to
>> make-ld-wrapper/implementation and call it.
>> (make-ld-wrapper/implementation) New procedure.
>>
>> Change-Id: Id6fc805a4a7ffbc5ff0a5174eafcdf2c7c46854d
>
> Do you have figures before and after the change?
>
> The reason I’m asking is that (gnu packages commencement) arranges to
> not call ‘make-ld-wrapper’ repeatedly already.  For instance, there’s:
>
>   (define-public ld-wrapper
>     ;; The final 'ld' wrapper, which uses the final Guile and Binutils.
>     (make-ld-wrapper "ld-wrapper"
>                      #:binutils binutils-final
>                      #:guile guile-final
>                      #:bash bash-final))
>
> and from there on we manipulate a single <package> record.

I believe the reason packages from make-ld-wrapper were showing up
multiple times in the cache for me is linked to it's use in the
cross-base module, as part of the cross-gcc procedure.

A later commit does change cross-gcc to return a single package record
for some given arguments, so that probably resolves the biggest misuse
of make-ld-wrapper.

I think there's other cases (in the llvm and mold modules) where it
looks like it's called multiple times with the same arguments, so maybe
that's an argument for having memoization around make-ld-wrapper even
though it's not needed for all uses.