[Reproducible-builds] Bug#799410: segment: please make the build reproducible

[Santiago Vila]

On Mon, Sep 21, 2015 at 06:21:16PM +0100, Chris Lamb wrote:
> > I think it would be even better if we stopped using build dates
> > altogether,
> > i.e. considering them to be irrelevant.
> 
> Of course, but that involves diverging from upstream.

Well, it depends.

My theory is that stop using the build date is what a sensible
upstream would do, so we would not be diverging, just "anticipating",
since we would move in the same direction.

We don't know what the author meant by "build date", but if he really meant
"build date" and we replace it by something else (source date), which
is not exactly the same, we are modifying the program in a way that it
does no longer tell the truth. I'm a little bit uncomfortable with that.