Can't build API docs in a cross environment without installing the tests
This line in the top-level meson.build
probably seemed innocent/sensible enough:
# Don’t build the tests unless we can run them (either natively, in an exe wrapper, or by installing them for later use)
build_tests = get_option('tests') and (meson.can_run_host_binaries() or installed_tests_enabled)
But this means that in a cross-compiled environment without a qemu wrapper where the tests are not being installed, it's impossible to build the API documentation as the docs refer to a test case:
../glib-2.78.1/docs/reference/gio/gdbus-object-manager-example/meson.build:4:18: ERROR: Unknown variable "libgdbus_example_objectmanager_dep".
There's several viable resolutions. I'd say that there's always value in building the tests, even if they can't be ran. Or that specific test can be built always.