diff --git a/pkgs/desktops/gnome/core/gucharmap/default.nix b/pkgs/desktops/gnome/core/gucharmap/default.nix
index c822605cf3e6..ec07f89ebc55 100644
--- a/pkgs/desktops/gnome/core/gucharmap/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/desktops/gnome/core/gucharmap/default.nix
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 , intltool
 , fetchFromGitLab
 , meson
+, mesonEmulatorHook
 , ninja
 , pkg-config
 , python3
@@ -18,7 +19,6 @@
 , docbook_xsl
 , docbook_xml_dtd_412
 , gsettings-desktop-schemas
-, callPackage
 , unzip
 , unicode-character-database
 , unihan-database
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@ in stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "sha256-QoHLMq3U/BvpCFKttxLo0qs2xmZ/pCqPjsgq/MMWNbo=";
   };
 
+  strictDeps = true;
   nativeBuildInputs = [
     meson
     ninja
@@ -73,6 +74,8 @@ in stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     libxml2
     desktop-file-utils
     gobject-introspection
+  ] ++ lib.optionals (!stdenv.buildPlatform.canExecute stdenv.hostPlatform) [
+    mesonEmulatorHook
   ];
 
   buildInputs = [
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/amtk/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/amtk/default.nix
index 74f83a30a502..86d5a038a3f2 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/amtk/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/amtk/default.nix
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 , fetchurl
 , gtk3
 , meson
+, mesonEmulatorHook
 , ninja
 , pkg-config
 , gobject-introspection
@@ -24,6 +25,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "1QEVuFyHKqwpaTS17nJqP6FWxvWtltJ+Dt0Kpa0XMig=";
   };
 
+  strictDeps = true;
   nativeBuildInputs = [
     meson
     ninja
@@ -32,6 +34,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     gobject-introspection
     gtk-doc
     docbook-xsl-nons
+  ] ++ lib.optionals (!stdenv.buildPlatform.canExecute stdenv.hostPlatform) [
+    mesonEmulatorHook
   ];
 
   buildInputs = [
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/clutter-gst/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/clutter-gst/default.nix
index e00cda47da6d..4d21cd10f8ef 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/clutter-gst/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/clutter-gst/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ fetchurl, fetchpatch, lib, stdenv, pkg-config, clutter, gtk3, glib, cogl, gnome, gdk-pixbuf }:
+{ fetchurl, fetchpatch, lib, stdenv, pkg-config, clutter, gtk3, glib, cogl, gnome, gdk-pixbuf, gobject-introspection }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   pname = "clutter-gst";
@@ -21,8 +21,9 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     })
   ];
 
+  strictDeps = true;
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ pkg-config glib gobject-introspection ];
   propagatedBuildInputs = [ clutter gtk3 glib cogl gdk-pixbuf ];
-  nativeBuildInputs = [ pkg-config ];
 
   postBuild = "rm -rf $out/share/gtk-doc";
 
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/gmime/2.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/gmime/2.nix
index 2a953fa702cb..d6369227739b 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/gmime/2.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/gmime/2.nix
@@ -13,7 +13,9 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   nativeBuildInputs = [ pkg-config gobject-introspection ];
   propagatedBuildInputs = [ glib zlib libgpg-error ];
-  configureFlags = [ "--enable-introspection=yes" ];
+  configureFlags = [
+    "--enable-introspection=yes"
+  ] ++ lib.optionals (stdenv.buildPlatform != stdenv.hostPlatform) [ "ac_cv_have_iconv_detect_h=yes" ];
 
   postPatch = ''
     substituteInPlace tests/testsuite.c \
@@ -24,6 +26,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
       --replace /bin/mkdir mkdir
   '';
 
+  preConfigure = lib.optionalString (stdenv.buildPlatform != stdenv.hostPlatform) ''
+    cp ${if stdenv.hostPlatform.isMusl then ./musl-iconv-detect.h else ./iconv-detect.h} ./iconv-detect.h
+  '';
+
   nativeCheckInputs = [ gnupg ];
 
   enableParallelBuilding = true;
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/gmime/3.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/gmime/3.nix
index 6816c108160a..e5a70f234872 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/gmime/3.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/gmime/3.nix
@@ -12,19 +12,32 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   outputs = [ "out" "dev" ];
 
-  buildInputs = [ vala gobject-introspection zlib gpgme libidn2 libunistring ];
-  nativeBuildInputs = [ pkg-config ];
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ pkg-config gobject-introspection vala ];
+  buildInputs = [
+    zlib
+    gpgme
+    libidn2
+    libunistring
+    vala # for share/vala/Makefile.vapigen
+  ];
   propagatedBuildInputs = [ glib ];
   configureFlags = [
     "--enable-introspection=yes"
     "--enable-vala=yes"
-  ];
+  ] ++ lib.optionals (stdenv.buildPlatform != stdenv.hostPlatform) [ "ac_cv_have_iconv_detect_h=yes" ];
 
   postPatch = ''
     substituteInPlace tests/testsuite.c \
       --replace /bin/rm rm
   '';
 
+  preConfigure = ''
+    PKG_CONFIG_VAPIGEN_VAPIGEN="$(type -p vapigen)"
+    export PKG_CONFIG_VAPIGEN_VAPIGEN
+  '' + lib.optionalString (stdenv.buildPlatform != stdenv.hostPlatform) ''
+    cp ${if stdenv.hostPlatform.isMusl then ./musl-iconv-detect.h else ./iconv-detect.h} ./iconv-detect.h
+  '';
+
   nativeCheckInputs = [ gnupg ];
 
   doCheck = true;
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/gmime/iconv-detect.h b/pkgs/development/libraries/gmime/iconv-detect.h
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..6d9dd05b59e2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/gmime/iconv-detect.h
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+/* This is an auto-generated header, DO NOT EDIT! */
+
+#define ICONV_ISO_INT_FORMAT "iso-%u-%u"
+#define ICONV_ISO_STR_FORMAT "iso-%u-%s"
+#define ICONV_SHIFT_JIS "shift-jis"
+#define ICONV_10646 "iso-10646"
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/gmime/musl-iconv-detect.h b/pkgs/development/libraries/gmime/musl-iconv-detect.h
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..569da106b943
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/gmime/musl-iconv-detect.h
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+/* This is an auto-generated header, DO NOT EDIT! */
+
+#define ICONV_ISO_INT_FORMAT "iso-%u-%u"
+#define ICONV_ISO_STR_FORMAT "iso-%u-%s"
+#define ICONV_SHIFT_JIS "shift-jis"
+#define ICONV_10646 "UCS-4BE"
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/gtksourceview/5.x.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/gtksourceview/5.x.nix
index 100e3e44a88f..230047daa04f 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/gtksourceview/5.x.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/gtksourceview/5.x.nix
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
     gobject-introspection
     vala
     gi-docgen
+    gtk4 # for gtk4-update-icon-cache checked during configure
   ];
 
   buildInputs = [
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/libcloudproviders/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/libcloudproviders/default.nix
index 08601db08342..41a51f001451 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/libcloudproviders/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/libcloudproviders/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ lib, stdenv, fetchurl, meson, ninja, pkg-config, gobject-introspection, vala, gtk-doc, docbook_xsl, glib }:
+{ lib, stdenv, fetchurl, meson, ninja, pkg-config, gobject-introspection, vala, gtk-doc, docbook_xsl, glib, mesonEmulatorHook }:
 
 # TODO: Add installed tests once https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/libcloudproviders/issues/4 is fixed
 
@@ -17,7 +17,18 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     "-Denable-gtk-doc=true"
   ];
 
-  nativeBuildInputs = [ meson ninja pkg-config gobject-introspection vala gtk-doc docbook_xsl ];
+  strictDeps = true;
+  nativeBuildInputs = [
+    meson
+    ninja
+    pkg-config
+    gobject-introspection
+    vala
+    gtk-doc
+    docbook_xsl
+  ] ++ lib.optionals (!stdenv.buildPlatform.canExecute stdenv.hostPlatform) [
+    mesonEmulatorHook
+  ];
 
   buildInputs = [ glib ];
 
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/librest/1.0.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/librest/1.0.nix
index fec622752f8c..1e134f62bad7 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/librest/1.0.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/librest/1.0.nix
@@ -37,6 +37,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     })
   ];
 
+  strictDeps = true;
+  depsBuildBuild = [ pkg-config ];
   nativeBuildInputs = [
     meson
     ninja
@@ -64,6 +66,12 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     # https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/librest/-/merge_requests/19
     substituteInPlace meson.build \
       --replace "con." "conf."
+
+    # Run-time dependency gi-docgen found: NO (tried pkgconfig and cmake)
+    # it should be a build-time dep for build
+    # TODO: send upstream
+    substituteInPlace docs/meson.build \
+      --replace "'gi-docgen', ver" "'gi-docgen', native:true, ver"
   '';
 
   postFixup = ''
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/telepathy/glib/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/telepathy/glib/default.nix
index 9ab269aaacfc..e1510fca92a6 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/telepathy/glib/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/telepathy/glib/default.nix
@@ -22,16 +22,17 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "sKN013HN0IESXzjDq9B5ZXZCMBxxpUPVVeK/IZGSc/A=";
   };
 
+  strictDeps = true;
   nativeBuildInputs = [
     pkg-config
     libxslt
     gobject-introspection
     vala
+    python3
   ];
 
   buildInputs = [
     glibcLocales
-    python3
   ];
 
   propagatedBuildInputs = [
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/tepl/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/tepl/default.nix
index 3b228b6c6250..387fa214de26 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/tepl/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/tepl/default.nix
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 { lib, stdenv
 , fetchurl
 , meson
+, mesonEmulatorHook
 , ninja
 , amtk
 , gnome
@@ -24,6 +25,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "XlayBmnQzwX6HWS1jIw0LFkVgSLcUYEA0JPVnfm4cyE=";
   };
 
+  strictDeps = true;
   nativeBuildInputs = [
     meson
     ninja
@@ -31,6 +33,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     pkg-config
     gtk-doc
     docbook-xsl-nons
+  ] ++ lib.optionals (!stdenv.buildPlatform.canExecute stdenv.hostPlatform) [
+    mesonEmulatorHook
   ];
 
   buildInputs = [
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/uhttpmock/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/uhttpmock/default.nix
index f2f0fabb0637..d22ff81c2530 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/uhttpmock/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/uhttpmock/default.nix
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 , lib
 , fetchFromGitLab
 , meson
+, mesonEmulatorHook
 , ninja
 , pkg-config
 , gobject-introspection
@@ -26,6 +27,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     sha256 = "NuxiVVowZ8ilP9rcgapCe9OzFCpoOfZxZiSyjTeOrts=";
   };
 
+  strictDeps = true;
   nativeBuildInputs = [
     meson
     ninja
@@ -34,6 +36,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     vala
     gtk-doc
     docbook-xsl-nons
+  ] ++ lib.optionals (!stdenv.buildPlatform.canExecute stdenv.hostPlatform) [
+    mesonEmulatorHook
   ];
 
   buildInputs = [