[Pkg-mc-devel] Bug#828683: Bug#828683: mc: please make the build reproducible

[Yury V. Zaytsev]

Hi Reiner,

On Mon, 27 Jun 2016, Reiner Herrmann wrote:

> You are right, the mtime of the file is used for the manpage timestamp. 
> But there is still a patch modifying the manpage: 
> mcedit_full_path.patch. When this patch is upstreamed, the 
> SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH patch is not needed, though it would still help when 
> the manpages are patched.

Thank you for the confirmation that my guesses are correct!

However, I'm hesitant to apply SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH to anything that looks 
like a nail. I believe that patching of upstream sources by Debian is such 
an oft occurring situation, that I would rather look for at solution at 
the packaging level. After all, builds from *upstream* sources are 
*already* reproducible, in this case, it's the Debian build procedure that 
is injecting randomness here.

For instance, it seems to me that it is only logical to set the mtime of 
patched files to the mtime of the last patch that touched them, and this 
will make the source mtime dependent builds fully reproducible.

Have you already thought of that, and if yes, what are the counter 
arguments against this approach?

-- 
Sincerely yours,
Yury V. Zaytsev