bug#51928: GHC 8.10 occupies 1.6 GiB

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi!

GHC takes way too much space (GHC itself, not the closure):

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
$ guix size ghc@8.10
konserveja ero                                                   total    self
/gnu/store/allyyvs2xg396s23csrmqfx19n9zayp7-ghc-8.10.7            1831.0  
1599.4  87.3%
/gnu/store/z9alkwg8anajvasd01pyx4rzcasli3yf-ghc-8.10.7-doc         190.2   
150.8   8.2%
/gnu/store/fa6wj5bxkj5ll1d7292a70knmyl7a0cr-glibc-2.31              38.4    
36.7   2.0%
/gnu/store/01b4w3m6mp55y531kyi1g8shh722kwqm-gcc-7.5.0-lib           71.0    
32.6   1.8%
/gnu/store/zzkly5rbfvahwqgcs7crz0ilpi7x5g5p-ncurses-6.2             76.9     
5.9   0.3%
/gnu/store/35afkywncrr5xsb4cxcljf6rpjcb7f61-gmp-6.2.0               73.8     
2.7   0.2%
/gnu/store/mmhimfwmmidf09jw1plw3aw1g1zn2nkh-bash-static-5.0.16       1.6     
1.6   0.1%
/gnu/store/pwcp239kjf7lnj5i4lkdzcfcxwcfyk72-bash-minimal-5.0.16     39.4     
1.0   0.1%
/gnu/store/bw15z9kh9c65ycc2vbhl2izwfwfva7p1-libffi-3.3              71.2     
0.2   0.0%
total: 1831.0 MiB
$ guix describe
Generacio 194   Nov 07 2021 23:40:30    (nuna)
  guix bd41e59
    repository URL: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git
    branch: master
    commit: bd41e590dd24e54797fb8b6854c244efd4d12df5
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Most of it comes from $libdir, specifically:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
$ du -s 
/gnu/store/ifr4svr31053fgqay0il5acipl7b6579-ghc-8.10.7/lib/ghc-8.10.7/*|sort 
-k1 -n| tail
23756   
/gnu/store/ifr4svr31053fgqay0il5acipl7b6579-ghc-8.10.7/lib/ghc-8.10.7/haskeline-0.8.2
28776   
/gnu/store/ifr4svr31053fgqay0il5acipl7b6579-ghc-8.10.7/lib/ghc-8.10.7/text-1.2.4.1
47664   
/gnu/store/ifr4svr31053fgqay0il5acipl7b6579-ghc-8.10.7/lib/ghc-8.10.7/containers-0.6.5.1
48428   
/gnu/store/ifr4svr31053fgqay0il5acipl7b6579-ghc-8.10.7/lib/ghc-8.10.7/ghc-prim-0.6.1
50768   
/gnu/store/ifr4svr31053fgqay0il5acipl7b6579-ghc-8.10.7/lib/ghc-8.10.7/ghci-8.10.7
54100   
/gnu/store/ifr4svr31053fgqay0il5acipl7b6579-ghc-8.10.7/lib/ghc-8.10.7/template-haskell-2.16.0.0
80200   
/gnu/store/ifr4svr31053fgqay0il5acipl7b6579-ghc-8.10.7/lib/ghc-8.10.7/bin
151868  
/gnu/store/ifr4svr31053fgqay0il5acipl7b6579-ghc-8.10.7/lib/ghc-8.10.7/base-4.14.3.0
426416  
/gnu/store/ifr4svr31053fgqay0il5acipl7b6579-ghc-8.10.7/lib/ghc-8.10.7/Cabal-3.2.1.0
538168  
/gnu/store/ifr4svr31053fgqay0il5acipl7b6579-ghc-8.10.7/lib/ghc-8.10.7/ghc-8.10.7
$ du -s 
/gnu/store/ifr4svr31053fgqay0il5acipl7b6579-ghc-8.10.7/lib/ghc-8.10.7/ghc-8.10.7/*|sort
 -k1 -n|tail
652     
/gnu/store/ifr4svr31053fgqay0il5acipl7b6579-ghc-8.10.7/lib/ghc-8.10.7/ghc-8.10.7/Llvm
716     
/gnu/store/ifr4svr31053fgqay0il5acipl7b6579-ghc-8.10.7/lib/ghc-8.10.7/ghc-8.10.7/SPARC
1108    
/gnu/store/ifr4svr31053fgqay0il5acipl7b6579-ghc-8.10.7/lib/ghc-8.10.7/ghc-8.10.7/RegAlloc
2256    
/gnu/store/ifr4svr31053fgqay0il5acipl7b6579-ghc-8.10.7/lib/ghc-8.10.7/ghc-8.10.7/DynFlags.dyn_hi
2256    
/gnu/store/ifr4svr31053fgqay0il5acipl7b6579-ghc-8.10.7/lib/ghc-8.10.7/ghc-8.10.7/DynFlags.hi
2256    
/gnu/store/ifr4svr31053fgqay0il5acipl7b6579-ghc-8.10.7/lib/ghc-8.10.7/ghc-8.10.7/DynFlags.p_hi
23724   
/gnu/store/ifr4svr31053fgqay0il5acipl7b6579-ghc-8.10.7/lib/ghc-8.10.7/ghc-8.10.7/GHC
90908   
/gnu/store/ifr4svr31053fgqay0il5acipl7b6579-ghc-8.10.7/lib/ghc-8.10.7/ghc-8.10.7/libHSghc-8.10.7-ghc8.10.7.so
127908  
/gnu/store/ifr4svr31053fgqay0il5acipl7b6579-ghc-8.10.7/lib/ghc-8.10.7/ghc-8.10.7/libHSghc-8.10.7.a
225972  
/gnu/store/ifr4svr31053fgqay0il5acipl7b6579-ghc-8.10.7/lib/ghc-8.10.7/ghc-8.10.7/libHSghc-8.10.7_p.a
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Can we at least (re)move those ‘.a’ files?

Thoughts?

Ludo’.