I don't think I fully understand this. Is g-i in meson projects already broken for a while (there was a bit of refactor in the latest meson version, which I tested, but perhaps not well enough), or is this necessary for the other patches in your set?

Alex

On Thu, 25 Mar 2021 at 18:39, Ross Burton <ross@burtonini.com> wrote:
When building G-I we want to use *native* binaries (as they need to be
executed) but the *cross* libraries, as otherwise when using the correct
pkg-config binary in native lookups Meson will end up linking native and
cross libraries together.

Signed-off-by: Ross Burton <ross.burton@arm.com>
---
 meta/recipes-devtools/meson/meson.inc         |  1 +
 .../meson/meson/gi-target-dep.patch           | 41 +++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 42 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 meta/recipes-devtools/meson/meson/gi-target-dep.patch

diff --git a/meta/recipes-devtools/meson/meson.inc b/meta/recipes-devtools/meson/meson.inc
index fc3ca85fae..e186dede92 100644
--- a/meta/recipes-devtools/meson/meson.inc
+++ b/meta/recipes-devtools/meson/meson.inc
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ SRC_URI = "https://github.com/mesonbuild/meson/releases/download/${PV}/meson-${P
            file://cross-prop-default.patch \
            file://0001-modules-python.py-do-not-substitute-python-s-install.patch \
            file://0001-minstall-Correctly-set-uid-gid-of-installed-files.patch \
+           file://gi-target-dep.patch \
            "
 SRC_URI[sha256sum] = "72e1c782ba9bda204f4a1ed57f98d027d7b6eb9414c723eebbd6ec7f1955c8a6"

diff --git a/meta/recipes-devtools/meson/meson/gi-target-dep.patch b/meta/recipes-devtools/meson/meson/gi-target-dep.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..25b30ca27a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/meta/recipes-devtools/meson/meson/gi-target-dep.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+When building gobject-introspection we want the *native* binaries (as they need
+to be executed) but *host* gobject-introspection libraries, as otherwise the
+native pkg-config can be used and the build will try to link native and host
+binaries together.
+
+Upstream-Status: Pending
+Signed-off-by: Ross Burton <ross.burton@arm.com>
+
+diff --git a/mesonbuild/modules/gnome.py b/mesonbuild/modules/gnome.py
+index f9660838e..2eefc3fc7 100644
+--- a/mesonbuild/modules/gnome.py
++++ b/mesonbuild/modules/gnome.py
+@@ -84,8 +84,8 @@ class GnomeModule(ExtensionModule):
+                      mlog.bold('https://github.com/mesonbuild/meson/issues/1387'),
+                      once=True)
+
+-    def _get_native_dep(self, state, depname, required=True):
+-        kwargs = {'native': True, 'required': required}
++    def _get_dep(self, state, depname, native=False, required=True):
++        kwargs = {'native': native, 'required': required}
+         holder = self.interpreter.func_dependency(state.current_node, [depname], kwargs)
+         return holder.held_object
+
+@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ class GnomeModule(ExtensionModule):
+             return ExternalProgram.from_entry(name, prog)
+
+         # Check if pkgconfig has a variable
+-        dep = self._get_native_dep(state, depname, required=False)
++        dep = self._get_dep(state, depname, native=True, required=False)
+         if dep.found() and dep.type_name == 'pkgconfig':
+             value = dep.get_pkgconfig_variable(varname, {})
+             if value:
+@@ -481,7 +481,7 @@ class GnomeModule(ExtensionModule):
+
+     def _get_gir_dep(self, state):
+         if not self.gir_dep:
+-            self.gir_dep = self._get_native_dep(state, 'gobject-introspection-1.0')
++            self.gir_dep = self._get_dep(state, 'gobject-introspection-1.0')
+             self.giscanner = self._get_native_binary(state, 'g-ir-scanner', 'gobject-introspection-1.0', 'g_ir_scanner')
+             self.gicompiler = self._get_native_binary(state, 'g-ir-compiler', 'gobject-introspection-1.0', 'g_ir_compiler')
+         return self.gir_dep, self.giscanner, self.gicompiler
--
2.25.1