Split GN installer_util into one that has no strings.

chrome/installer/util/BUILD.gn

 # Copyright 2014 The Chromium Authors. All rights reserved.
 # Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be
 # found in the LICENSE file.
 
 import("//build/config/chrome_build.gni")
 import("//testing/test.gni")
 
-static_library("util") {
+# Generally you should depend on this target, see below for discussion.
+group("util") {
+  public_deps = [
+    ":with_no_strings_some_things_wont_work",
+  ]
+  if (is_win) {
+    public_deps += [ ":strings" ]
+  }
+}
+
+# chrome/installer/util has generated strings on Windows. These appear as
+# Windows resources and are fairly large (~200KB). They are generated by the
+# ":generate_strings" target and compiled by the ":strings" target.
+#
+# Some code, like the Windows chrome.exe (the small bootstrap binary, not
+# all of chrome.dll) code uses installer_util functions without calling any
+# functions that use the strings. And historically in the GYP build the strings
+# resource had to be manually linked, so the strings never ended up being in
+# chrome.exe and everything was fine.
+#
+# However, this is obviously a fragile and confusing situation. If you depend
+# on this target rather than going through the ":util" version that links the
+# strings above, anything that uses localized strings won't work. There is
+# no definition of what works and doesn't work, and this may also change over
+# time. As an example at the time of this writing, chrome.exe calls
+# BrowserDistribution::GetRegistryPath. This function doesn't use any strings,
+# but lots of other functions in BrowserDistribution do use localized strings.
+#
+# Ideally, this should be cleaved in two parts: the main "installer util" and
+# some kind of mini installer util that just contains the functions needed by
+# chrome.exe and any other clients that don't need the strings.
+static_library("with_no_strings_some_things_wont_work") {
   deps = [
     "//base",
     "//chrome:strings",
     "//chrome/common:constants",
     "//components/variations",
     "//content/public/common:result_codes",
   ]
 
   # The constants target checks the Chrome distribution from this target. Both
   # targets have to be linked together in practice.
@@ skipping 40 matching lines @@
       "self_cleaning_temp_dir.cc",
       "self_cleaning_temp_dir.h",
       "shell_util.cc",
       "shell_util.h",
       "uninstall_metrics.cc",
       "uninstall_metrics.h",
       "user_experiment.cc",
       "user_experiment.h",
     ]
 
-    public_deps = [
-      ":strings",
-    ]
     deps += [
+      # Need to depend on the generated strings target since files here
+      # depend on the generated header, but only depend on the ":strings"
+      # target (which actually compiles and causes the generated code to be
+      # linked) from the ":util" target.
+      ":generate_strings",
       "//base/third_party/dynamic_annotations",
       "//components/metrics",
       "//courgette:courgette_lib",
       "//crypto",
       "//third_party/bspatch",
       "//third_party/icu",
       "//third_party/lzma_sdk",
     ]
 
     configs += [
@@ skipping 97 matching lines @@
     sources = [
       "master_preferences.cc",
       "master_preferences.h",
       "master_preferences_constants.cc",
       "master_preferences_constants.h",
     ]
   }
 }
 
 action("generate_strings") {
-  visibility = [ ":strings" ]
+  visibility = [
+    ":strings",
+    ":with_no_strings_some_things_wont_work",
+  ]
   script = "prebuild/create_string_rc.py"
 
   if (is_chrome_branded) {
     grdfile = "//chrome/app/google_chrome_strings.grd"
   } else {
     grdfile = "//chrome/app/chromium_strings.grd"
   }
 
   inputs = [
     grdfile,
@@ skipping 83 matching lines @@
       "//chrome/installer/test:alternate_version_generator_lib",
       "//components/variations",
       "//content/public/common",
       "//testing/gmock",
       "//testing/gtest",
     ]
 
     # TODO(GYP) manifest: $(ProjectDir)\\installer\\mini_installer\\mini_installer.exe.manifest
   }
 }  # is_win