Re: [bug #57218] [PATCH] Reproducible builds support is broken and embeds timezone

[Steffen Nurpmeso]

Hu-hu!

Ingo Schwarze wrote in
 <20201022-173721.sv97361.91510@savannah.gnu.org>:
 |Follow-up Comment #4, bug #57218 (project groff):
 |
 |I think groff should not write %%CreationDate into PostScript files it
 |creates.  Not because of reproducible builds, which i consider a useless \
 |and
 |even detrimental feature, but because of privacy concerns.  That would also
 |solve this so-called "problem" as a side effect.
 |
 |Basically, it amounts to something like deleting these lines from
 |src/devices/grops/ps.cpp:
 |
 |  {
 |    fputs("%%CreationDate: ", out.get_file());
 |  #ifdef LONG_FOR_TIME_T
 |    long
 |  #else
 |    time_t
 |  #endif
 |    t = current_time();
 |    fputs(ctime(&t), out.get_file());
 |}

I think better it would be to check for
getenv("SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH"), and use a fixed constant if that is
true.  (For the MUA i maintain i use SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=844221007
in mx-test.sh, i have forgotten why, hmm.)
It is a pity that reproducible-builds.org only goes for that
single constant, and does not offer finer control for tests etc.

Ciao and good night,

--steffen
|
|Der Kragenbaer,                The moon bear,
|der holt sich munter           he cheerfully and one by one
|einen nach dem anderen runter  wa.ks himself off
|(By Robert Gernhardt)