[debhelper-devel] Bug#782878: Bug#782879 + Bug#782878: lib{test-log4perl, scalar-defer}-perl: please make the build reproducible

[Niko Tyni]

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   ntyni at debian.org