Bug#995886: cxref: reproducible builds: Embedded timestamps in .dvi and .ps files

[Vagrant Cascadian]

Source: cxref
Severity: normal
Tags: patch
User: reproducible-builds at lists.alioth.debian.org
Usertags: timestamps
X-Debbugs-Cc: reproducible-bugs at lists.alioth.debian.org

The build timestamp is embedded in various .dvi and .ps files:

  https://tests.reproducible-builds.org/debian/rb-pkg/unstable/amd64/diffoscope-results/cxref.html

  /usr/share/doc/cxref/README.ps.gz

  %DVIPSSource:··TeX·output·2021.09.14:1340
vs.
  %DVIPSSource:··TeX·output·2022.10.18:2205

The attached patch fixes this by setting FORCE_SOURCE_DATE=1 in
debian/rules, which texlive needs in order to respect SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH,
which is set during debian package builds to the timestamp in the latest
debian/changelog entry.

  https://reproducible-builds.org/docs/source-date-epoch/

There are other reproducibility issues for cxref(build paths and
usrmerge), so this patch alone will not make cxref reproducible, but
should reduce the overall reproducibility diff, making it easier to
troubleshoot remaining issues.


Thanks for maintaining cxref!


live well,
  vagrant
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