Bug#1033958: binutils: reproducible builds: files in source tarball in arbitrary order

[Vagrant Cascadian]

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

The files in the binutils tarball appear to be in arbitrary order,
possibly affected by locale or filesystem differences:

  https://tests.reproducible-builds.org/debian/rb-pkg/bookworm/armhf/diffoscope-results/binutils.html

  /usr/src/binutils/binutils-2.40.tar.xz

  e.g. the first file in the bfd directory listed in these two builds are:

  hrw-r--r--···0········0········0········0·2023-01-14·00:00:00.000000·binutils-2.40/bfd/elf32-m68hc1x.h
  vs.
  hrw-r--r--···0········0········0········0·2023-01-14·00:00:00.000000·binutils-2.40/bfd/elf32-score7.c


The attached patch to debian/rules fixes this by passing the --sort=name
argument to tar.


Unfortunately, this patch alone does not solve all reproducibility
issues with binutils, but applying this patch should significantly reduce
the differences, making it easier to debug remaining issues.


Thanks for maintaining binutils!


live well,
  vagrant
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