Do the file timestamps in ISOs matter ?

[Thomas Schmitt]

Hi,

i wrote:
> > new program option:  --set_all_file_dates [...]

Chris Lamb wrote:
> I believe this option is entirely unnecessary. No need to
> complicate things.

It is architecturally needed, because if SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH sets the
default, there must be some option to set non-default values, especially
the value which is default without SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH.

I decided to let SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH only set the defaults of existing
and new options, in order to protect ISO producers like grub-mkrescue from
negative effects by overriding their program options.
(grub-mkrescue uses --modification-date= to set the text in ISO 9660 field
 Volume Modification Date, so that GRUB command
   search --fs-uuid --set YYYY-MM-DD-hh-mm-ss-cc
 can look it up.)

Not to forget that it offers those users a workaround, who do not agree
with the final decision about the question posed here, but want to use
SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH nevertheless.


Have a nice day :)

Thomas