Do the file timestamps in ISOs matter ?

[Chris Lamb]

Hi Thomas,

> Still undecided is whether [SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH] shall by default override
> all timestamps inside the ISO

I believe this steps outside the scope of what exporting SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
should do, both philosophically, æsthetically, and practically as it
prevents ISO producers from having differing mtimes in files.

It's easy enough to clamp (or simply override) the mtimes prior to calling
xorriso anyway…


> [SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH] shall only copy each file's mtime to the same file's
> ctime and atime (to ease reproduction of input file trees).

+1 for this.


> xorriso will support all three models by allowing to override SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
> by one of three parameters to a new program option:
>   --set_all_file_dates  default
>   --set_all_file_dates  set_to_mtime
>   --set_all_file_dates  ="$SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH"

Given that there is no believable use-case where one would be exporting
SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH but somehow desire the atime and ctime to vary but have a
fixed mtime, I believe this option is entirely unnecessary. No need to
complicate things.


Regards,

-- 
      ,''`.
     : :'  :     Chris Lamb
     `. `'`      lamby at debian.org / chris-lamb.co.uk
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