[Reproducible-builds] Variation in day

[Reiner Herrmann]

Hi,

after Faux found a package with a variation not in time, but only
in the date [1] because it was built around midnight, I had an idea
about how to get a variation in the day, without having to change
the clock of the host.

Varying the timezone between the first and second build to the
lowest and highest possible offset gives a difference of about
one day:

$ TZ=/usr/share/zoneinfo/Etc/GMT+12 date
Tue Feb 24 09:05:40 GMT+12 2015
$ TZ=/usr/share/zoneinfo/Etc/GMT-14 date
Wed Feb 25 11:05:49 GMT-14 2015

It is even possible to cover a day and 2 hours. :)
(Perhaps it's even possible to create custom timezones, that
would allow even larger variations like a year or so...?)

What do you think about this approach?
Would there be any disadvantages, and does anyone know
of tools that ignore the TZ setting?

Regards,
 Reiner

[1]: https://reproducible.debian.net/cp2k

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