Re: [Reproducible-builds] Bug#782878: [debhelper-devel] Bug#782879 + Bug#782878: lib{test-log4perl, scalar-defer}-perl: please make the build reproducible
Hi, Russ Allbery wrote: My feeling is that the date in the man page serves a useful purpose for the end user by communicating some idea of the staleness of the documentation and the recentness of the last release of the software. While this isn't a huge deal, it does feel somewhat less than ideal to lose that data. Replacing it with the last modification date of the Debian package isn't perfect, but it's fairly reasonable. I'm suffering this issue in a different context, which is a binary package that ships a tarball of the kfreebsd (kernel) source. Some of those files are patched by dpkg-source. From #759404 I can see why dpkg-source can't really help with this. It would be a shame to lose / reset all the timestamps, because: * it's useful to know how old a file is, if Debian didn't patch it, * installing the package, extracting files with newer timestamps, could mean some systems for backup or deduplication must treat the files as though they are new/changed, * in a new package revision, if the files in a particular .deb didn't change, it would be nice if the data.tar.xz didn't change; this would be helpful to future work on .deb deltas or deduplication. I suggest to only 'clamp' timestamps to the latest entry in debian/changelog. I think only timestamps newer than this are likely an issue for reproducibility. Older timestamps are potentially still useful. Regards, -- Steven Chamberlain ste...@pyro.eu.org ___ Reproducible-builds mailing list Reproducible-builds@lists.alioth.debian.org http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/reproducible-builds
Re: [Reproducible-builds] Bug#782878: [debhelper-devel] Bug#782879 + Bug#782878: lib{test-log4perl, scalar-defer}-perl: please make the build reproducible
On Sun, May 24, 2015 at 12:07:37PM -0700, Russ Allbery wrote: Disabling the date in the generated man page is definitely the easiest fix. I personally like the idea of instead setting the date to the last modified time of the Debian package. Actually, ideally, I wish that dpkg itself would set the timestamp of all files modified by patches to match the last modification date of the package, which would achieve the same thing but at what feels like the correct level. I agree that dpkg would be the right level, but unfortunately Guillem declined to do that. See #759404 (and please reopen+comment if you have further arguments to add there.) My feeling is that the date in the man page serves a useful purpose for the end user by communicating some idea of the staleness of the documentation and the recentness of the last release of the software. While this isn't a huge deal, it does feel somewhat less than ideal to lose that data. Replacing it with the last modification date of the Debian package isn't perfect, but it's fairly reasonable. FWIW I'm fine with both options (disabling the date altogether or replacing it with the debian/changelog date). -- Niko Tyni nt...@debian.org ___ Reproducible-builds mailing list Reproducible-builds@lists.alioth.debian.org http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/reproducible-builds
Re: [Reproducible-builds] Bug#782878: [debhelper-devel] Bug#782879 + Bug#782878: lib{test-log4perl, scalar-defer}-perl: please make the build reproducible
Niko Tyni nt...@debian.org writes: On Wed, May 20, 2015 at 10:34:20PM +0200, Niels Thykier wrote: On 2015-04-19 14:35, gregor herrmann wrote: On Sun, 19 Apr 2015 14:03:44 +0200, Axel Beckert wrote: Jelmer Vernooij wrote: +# Set man page timestamp to last package change time. +BUILD_DATE = $(shell dpkg-parsechangelog -S Date) +POD_MAN_DATE = $(shell date -u +%Y-%m-%d --date=$(BUILD_DATE)) +export POD_MAN_DATE But isn't this something which should be done doing once and properly in the build system (e.g. in dh_auto_build), like setting all the file time stamps to that date? It is not entirely clear to me what you are asking for. Is this change only supposed to go into a Perl specific build system, in all build systems supported by dh_auto_build or ...? That's a good question. I suppose it should go in all the build systems, although most of the benefit is certainly for Perl module packages. The context is that Pod::Man sets the date header based on the mtime of the file, but if the file is patched by the Debian packaging, the mtime will be set to the extraction time, breaking reproducibility. (See #759404 for some related discussion.) The mtime will also be unreproducible if the file is generated during the build. Disabling the date in the generated man page is definitely the easiest fix. I personally like the idea of instead setting the date to the last modified time of the Debian package. Actually, ideally, I wish that dpkg itself would set the timestamp of all files modified by patches to match the last modification date of the package, which would achieve the same thing but at what feels like the correct level. My feeling is that the date in the man page serves a useful purpose for the end user by communicating some idea of the staleness of the documentation and the recentness of the last release of the software. While this isn't a huge deal, it does feel somewhat less than ideal to lose that data. Replacing it with the last modification date of the Debian package isn't perfect, but it's fairly reasonable. -- Russ Allbery (r...@debian.org) http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/ ___ Reproducible-builds mailing list Reproducible-builds@lists.alioth.debian.org http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/reproducible-builds
