GNU bug report logs - #72232
"make dist" is not reproducible

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Message #10 received at 72232-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
To: Bruno Haible <bruno <at> clisp.org>, 72232-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Cc: Simon Josefsson <simon <at> josefsson.org>
Subject: Re: bug#72232: "make dist" is not reproducible
Date: Sun, 21 Jul 2024 18:44:04 +0100

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On 21/07/2024 17:18, Bruno Haible wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Subsequent runs of "make dist" in the same environment produce tarballs with
> different contents.
> 
> How to reproduce:
> 
> In a git checkout of coreutils, do:
> 
> $ echo snapshot > .tarball-version
> $ ./configure; make -k maintainer-clean
> $ ./bootstrap
> $ ./configure; make dist
> $ mkdir 1; (cd 1 && tar xf ../*.tar.gz)
> $ make; make dist
> $ mkdir 2; (cd 2 && tar xf ../*.tar.gz)
> $ diff -r -q 1 2
> 
> The last command produces a difference:
> 
> $ diff -r -q 1 2
> Files 1/coreutils-snapshot/.timestamp and 2/coreutils-snapshot/.timestamp differ
> $ cat 1/coreutils-snapshot/.timestamp
> 1721577765
> $ cat 2/coreutils-snapshot/.timestamp
> 1721577832
> 
> Can this be avoided? Can the contents of '.timestamp' always be the same?
> (Wouldn't it be enough to give it a different modification time, each time?)

Right, we should be able to adjust this.
The .timestamp file was added to support reproducible _builds_:
https://github.com/coreutils/coreutils/commit/c1b3d6587
https://reproducible-builds.org/docs/source-date-epoch/

We can just rely on the timestamp of the .tarball-version
to support reproducible _tarballs_.
That's done in the attached, which I'll apply later.

Marking this as done.

thanks,
Pádraig

[coreutils-repro-dist.patch (text/x-patch, attachment)]

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