Wrong type argument: package-input-rewriting/spec with inferior

[Greg Hogan]

Having failed a year ago to build the latest gcc and latest clang
together using "with-c-toolchain", the following succeeds using
"package-input-rewriting/spec".

My current issue is that glibc@2.33 on master fails to build with
gcc@12 ("cc1: all warnings being treated as errors") and my attempts
to pull a glibc@2.35 inferior from core-updates are failing.

On core-updates I can containerize and use gcc-toolchain@12 and
clang-toolchain@15 with the following manifest. Both gcc and clang
successfully compile a test file.

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
$ cat core-updates.scm
(use-modules
 (guix packages)
 (gnu packages gcc)
 (gnu packages llvm))

(define with-gcc12
  (package-input-rewriting/spec
   `(("gcc" . ,(const gcc-12)))))

(define clang-with-gcc-12
  (with-gcc12 clang-toolchain-15))

(concatenate-manifests
 (list
  (specifications->manifest
    '("gcc-toolchain@12"))
  (packages->manifest
   `(,clang-with-gcc-12))))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

On master I modify the manifest to create an inferior for glibc@2.35
from core-updates, but receive the following error when attempting to
use the inferior as a package. A similar question went unanswered on
StackOverflow last year
(https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/699148/how-to-use-an-inferior-when-input-rewriting-in-guix).

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
$ cat master.scm
(use-modules
 (guix channels)
 (guix inferior)
 (guix packages)
 (gnu packages gcc)
 (gnu packages llvm))

(define channels
  (list (channel
         (name 'guix)
         (url "https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git";)
         (branch "core-updates")
         (commit
          "3b57f25f55c52c97428106de285d3cf2746554dc"))))

(define (from-core-updates name)
  (car (lookup-inferior-packages (inferior-for-channels channels) name)))

(define glibc-from-core-updates
  (from-core-updates "glibc"))

(define with-gcc12
  (package-input-rewriting/spec
   `(("gcc" . ,(const gcc-12))
     ("glibc" . ,(const glibc-from-core-updates)))))

(define clang-with-gcc-12
  (with-gcc12 clang-toolchain-15))

(concatenate-manifests
 (list
  (specifications->manifest
    '("gcc-toolchain@12"))
  (packages->manifest
   `(,clang-with-gcc-12))))

$ guix build -m master.scm
Backtrace:
In guix/scripts/build.scm:
   670:16 19 (_ #<package clang-toolchain@15.0.7 gnu/packages/llvm.s…>)
   659:24 18 (_ #<package clang-toolchain@15.0.7 gnu/packages/llvm.…> …)
In guix/packages.scm:
  1351:17 17 (supported-package? #<package clang-toolchain@15.0.7 g…> …)
In guix/memoization.scm:
    101:0 16 (_ #<hash-table 7f5d81ec88a0 125/223> #<package clang-…> …)
In guix/packages.scm:
  1329:37 15 (_)
  1589:16 14 (package->bag _ _ _ #:graft? _)
  1690:48 13 (thunk)
  1485:25 12 (inputs _)
In srfi/srfi-1.scm:
   586:29 11 (map1 (("clang" #<package clang@15.0.7 gnu/package…>) …))
   586:29 10 (map1 (("ld-wrapper" #<package ld-wrapper@0 gnu/pa…>) …))
   586:29  9 (map1 (("binutils" #<package binutils@2.37 gnu/pac…>) …))
   586:29  8 (map1 (("libomp" #<package libomp@15.0.7 gnu/packa…>) …))
   586:17  7 (map1 (("libc" #<package glibc@2.33 gnu/packages/b…>) …))
In guix/packages.scm:
  1442:20  6 (rewrite ("libc" #<package glibc@2.33 gnu/packages/ba…>))
In guix/memoization.scm:
    101:0  5 (_ #<hash-table 7f5d937a6780 5/31> #<package glibc@2.3…> …)
In guix/packages.scm:
  1459:22  4 (_)
  1570:31  3 (loop #<inferior-package glibc@2.35 7f5d88e873c0>)
In ice-9/boot-9.scm:
  1685:16  2 (raise-exception _ #:continuable? _)
  1685:16  1 (raise-exception _ #:continuable? _)
  1685:16  0 (raise-exception _ #:continuable? _)

ice-9/boot-9.scm:1685:16: In procedure raise-exception:
In procedure package-properties: Wrong type argument:
#<inferior-package glibc@2.35 7f5d88e873c0>
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---