Bug#862112: r-base-dev: Generate reproducible output independently of the build path

[Ximin Luo]

Package: r-base-dev
Version: 3.4.0-1.0~reproducible2
Severity: wishlist
Tags: upstream patch
User: reproducible-builds at lists.alioth.debian.org
Usertags: build-path

Dear Maintainer,

I've been asked to file this bug report so that others working on the
Reproducible Builds project can better track the ongoing issue of
build-path-independent reproducibility in various tools and compilers. I don't
mean to imply to rush this process nor pressure you, this report is only for
informational purposes.

As you know, I've already contacted upstream with a proposed patch:
- https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-devel/2017-April/074138.html
- https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-devel/2017-May/074181.html (patch amended)

These may be browsed as git commits here:
- https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/reproducible/r-base.git/log/?h=pu/reproducible_builds

The built packages may be downloaded here:
- https://reproducible.alioth.debian.org/debian/
- https://tests.reproducible-builds.org/debian/index_repositories.html (overview)

The reproducibility status of dependent packages is being tracked on these pages:
- https://tests.reproducible-builds.org/debian/issues/unstable/randomness_in_r_rdb_rds_databases_issue.html

We're currently waiting to hear back from upstream to see if they think the
patch will negatively impact the behaviour of any R packages. At minimum, we
likely have to amend it to guard the behaviour behind some sort of run-time
option, as was done for a similar patch for timestamps in #774031.

Ximin

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 9.0
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (500, 'unstable-debug'), (500, 'testing-debug'), (300, 'unstable'), (200, 'experimental'), (1, 'experimental-debug')
Architecture: amd64
 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 4.9.0-2-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages r-base-dev depends on:
ii  build-essential                    12.3
ii  cdbs                               0.4.150
ii  g++                                4:6.3.0-4
ii  gcc                                4:6.3.0-4
ii  gfortran                           4:6.3.0-4
ii  libatlas-base-dev                  3.10.3-1+b1
ii  libblas-dev                        3.7.0-1
ii  libbz2-dev                         1.0.6-8.1
ii  libicu-dev                         57.1-6
ii  libjpeg-dev                        1:1.5.1-2
ii  libjpeg62-turbo-dev [libjpeg-dev]  1:1.5.1-2
ii  liblapack-dev                      3.7.0-1
ii  liblzma-dev                        5.2.2-1.2+b1
ii  libncurses5-dev                    6.0+20161126-1
ii  libpcre3-dev                       2:8.39-3
ii  libpng-dev                         1.6.28-1
ii  libreadline-dev                    7.0-2
ii  pkg-config                         0.29-4+b1
ii  r-base-core                        3.4.0-1.0~reproducible2
ii  xauth                              1:1.0.9-1+b2
ii  zlib1g-dev                         1:1.2.8.dfsg-5

r-base-dev recommends no packages.

Versions of packages r-base-dev suggests:
ii  debhelper                    10.2.5
ii  texinfo                      6.3.0.dfsg.1-1+b2
ii  texlive-base                 2016.20170123-5
ii  texlive-extra-utils          2016.20170123-5
ii  texlive-fonts-extra          2016.20170123-5
ii  texlive-fonts-recommended    2016.20170123-5
ii  texlive-generic-recommended  2016.20170123-5
ii  texlive-latex-base           2016.20170123-5
ii  texlive-latex-extra          2016.20170123-5
ii  texlive-latex-recommended    2016.20170123-5

-- no debconf information