On 12/28/24 04:38, Simon Josefsson via Gnulib discussion list wrote:
The tarball use the same
mtime for all files.
So I don't understand this concern. What problem do you see if you
don't perform those steps?
I must be missing something because for many tarballs it's obvious that
one shouldn't use the same mtime for all files.
The main reason I don't set all timestamps to 1 (0 doesn't work because
some 'make' implementations incorrectly treat 0 as meaning the file is
missing!) in distribution tarballs is that some 'make's treat equal
timestamps as meaning the destination is out of date and needs to be
rebuilt. (Although POSIX does not require this 'make' behavior, it
encourages it.)
Builders who lack the tool in question can't build from a tarball
containing such destinations. In contrast, if the destination's
timestamp is greater than its dependencies, builders can get their job
done without needing to install the tool.
If "reproducible built files" means that the distribution tarball
contains no such destinations, then my caveat doesn't apply and you can
use the same mtime for all files.
