[buildd-tools-devel] Bug#764504: sbuild: non-reproducible conffile

[Wookey]

+++ Jakub Wilk [2014-10-08 18:38 +0200]:
> Source: sbuild
> Version: 0.64.3-2
> 
> Contents of /etc/sbuild/sbuild.conf changes with every rebuild, even
> when nothing in the source package changed. This triggers
> unnecessary conffile prompts for people who customized the file.
> 
> The following things vary randomly:
> - order of items in $external_commands;
> - order of $crossbuild_core_depends.

Presumably this is not actually new for 0.64.3? These are hashes so do
not have specified order. Presumably the fix is to sort these before
outputting them when generating the conf file?
 
> At least the following things vary with build environment:
> - $build_arch, $host_arch;
> - $stats_dir.

This is because the file is generated at build-time, which has the
advantage that it stays up to date when new options appear. These
could be normalised to canonical examples, I guess. Or one could
revert to a manually-maintained file, but things will get forgotten if
done that way. Again, so far as I know the build has been done like
this for a long time. Roger?

Wookey
-- 
Principal hats:  Linaro, Emdebian, Wookware, Balloonboard, ARM
http://wookware.org/