diff --git a/gtk/gtkicontheme.c b/gtk/gtkicontheme.c
index 99cdc4b5e54577b17e3ed0bbb5f8de7717fa5fb7..8e13eba147d681cd60d17a2eea51750a88b0e01e 100644
--- a/gtk/gtkicontheme.c
+++ b/gtk/gtkicontheme.c
@@ -654,10 +654,20 @@ icon_key_equal (gconstpointer _a,
 
 /****************** Icon cache ***********************
  *
- * The icon cache, this spans both GtkIconTheme and GtkIcon, so the locking is
- * a bit tricky. Never do block with the lock held, and never do any
- * callouts to other code. In particular, don't call theme or finalizers
- * because that will take the lock when removing from the icon cache.
+ * The icon cache, this spans both GtkIconTheme and GtkIconPaintable,
+ * so the locking is a bit tricky. Never do block with the lock held,
+ * and never do any callouts to other code. In particular, don't call
+ * theme or finalizers, because that will take the lock when removing
+ * from the icon cache.
+ */
+
+/* The LRU cache is a short list of GtkIconPaintables that are kept
+ * alive even though their IconInfo would otherwise have been freed,
+ * so that we can avoid reloading these constantly.
+ *
+ * We put paintables on the lru list when we get a cache hit. Once
+ * they fall off the lru list, finalizing the paintable will remove
+ * the icon from the cache.
  */
 
 /* This is called with icon_cache lock held so must not take any locks */
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index e32306678ee8ce4b5fc93c6bc413b79a65a610c6..d8ebc589c615639a5ad831dc24c0db1fcf558819 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -19,7 +19,6 @@ pango_minor_req = 56
 
 # keep these numbers in sync with wrap files where there exist
 glib_req           = '>= @0@.@1@'.format(glib_major_req, glib_minor_req)
-introspection_req  = '>= 1.@0@.0'.format(glib_minor_req)
 pango_req          = '>= @0@.@1@'.format(pango_major_req, pango_minor_req)
 harfbuzz_req       = '>= 8.4.0'
 fribidi_req        = '>= 1.0.6'
@@ -446,9 +445,6 @@ xkbdep            = dependency('xkbcommon', version: xkbcommon_req, required: wa
 graphene_dep      = dependency('graphene-gobject-1.0', version: graphene_req,
                                default_options: ['tests=false', 'gobject_types=true'])
 iso_codes_dep     = dependency('iso-codes', required: false)
-gi_dep            = dependency('gobject-introspection-1.0', version: introspection_req,
-                               required: get_option('introspection').enabled() and
-                                         get_option('build-tests'))
 gstplayer_dep     = dependency('gstreamer-player-1.0', version: gstreamer_req,
                                required: get_option('media-gstreamer'),
                                default_options: [
@@ -854,6 +850,8 @@ subdir('gsk')
 subdir('gtk')
 subdir('modules')
 subdir('tools')
+subdir('po')
+subdir('docs/reference')
 if get_option('build-demos')
   subdir('demos')
 endif
@@ -952,9 +950,6 @@ if os_unix
   meson.override_dependency('gtk4-unix-print', libgtk_dep)
 endif
 
-subdir('po')
-
-subdir('docs/reference')
 
 devenv = environment()
 devenv.set('GTK_PATH', meson.current_build_dir() / 'modules')