ld not found (strict_action_env)

[bthmc]

Describe the bug

ld cannot be found during build.

To Reproduce

[nix-shell:~/src/nix_bazel_codelab]$ bazel run //go/cmd/server:go-server
[...]
collect2: fatal error: cannot find 'ld'

Expected behavior

It should build the go-server binary.

Environment

• Linux 6.11.2-arch1-1
• Version of the code: 0d9160f

Suspicion

Inside the nix-shell, the linker is at /nix/store/bgcaxhhxswzvmxjbbgvvaximm5hwghz1-binutils-2.41/bin/ld. The dir of it is in the PATH envvar. However, because of --incompatible_strict_action_env is in the .bazelrc file, PATH is not inherited, and the build fails. Note, gcc can be found (Probably it is discovered during local_config_cc_toolchain generation, that runs with the repo env, that inherits PATH regardless), but gcc can't find ld. Perhaps an explicit tc_toolchain should be set up?

[bthmc]

Possibly related: bazelbuild/bazel#21334

[bthmc]

A potential workaround for this stage is in .bazelrc:

common --action_env=CC=clang
common --action_env=CXX=clang++

[malt3]

I cannot reproduce this on my machine, but I see that the path to the linker (gold on my machine) is chosen independently from the path to the compiler, which explains how this can fail, depending on what you have installed outside of nix.

I like your suggestion for adding an explicit cc_toolchain!
An alternative solution would be to remove C++ support from Go using the following flag in .bazelrc: --@rules_go//go/config:pure.

Setting the flag will enable -linkmode internal during Go linking, so Go will never call out to an external linker.

Can you test building with that flag (whenever you have capacity)?