[Reproducible-builds] Bug#782878: Bug#782878: [debhelper-devel] Bug#782879 + Bug#782878: lib{test-log4perl, scalar-defer}-perl: please make the build reproducible

[Steven Chamberlain]

Steven Chamberlain wrote:
> I suggest to only 'clamp' timestamps to the latest entry in
> debian/changelog.

Something that does along the lines of:

    BUILD_DATE = $(shell dpkg-parsechangelog -S Date)
    find foo/ -depth -newer debian/changelog \
     -exec touch --date="$(BUILD_DATE)" \{\} \;

A generic debhelper tool for this might help in a few situations:

  * run it against POD files, and then don't have to unconditionally
    override POD_MAN_DATE;  files unmodified during build would keep
    their old timestamps from before

  * run it on a directory before generating a .zip or .tar;  saves
    having to post-process them

  * run it on a directory before generating a .deb;  might make the
    data.tar.xz reproducible in some cases even without patching dpkg
    yet?

Am I right?  It sounds too easy to me.

Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
steven at pyro.eu.org