Source: python-xlib Followup-For: Bug #838713 X-Debbugs-Cc: j...@jp-hosting.net, andre...@debian.org
Hello, I agree with Emmanuel that the problem has been solved (for *most* releases of Debian) by the existing patch[1] that replaces texi2html with makeinfo in the python-xlib HTML documentation build. The only release where python-xlib does *not* seem to build reproducibly is in the *stretch* release (oldoldstable - now beyond LTS). On 2020-02-13, diffoscope detected[2] differences between side-by-side builds of version 0.14+20091101-5 of the package in stretch. I think that those differences appeared because the python-xlib 0.14+20091101-5 package predates *both* the switch to use makeinfo, and also the texi2html patch[3] that removes embedded usernames from the "generated by ..." footer output in the documents generated by texi2html (the cause of the variance). Although I don't know whether there is ongoing desire/need to improve build reproducibility for stretch packages, it looks like that could be achieved in this case by either backporting the makeinfo patch, *or* by a version update of texi2html in stretch from 1.82+dfsg1-5 (which includes the embedded usernames) to 1.82+dfsg1-6 (in which the embedded usernames are removed). Note 1: the makeinfo approach relies on a SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH support patch[4] that fixed Debian bug #826158... and that is available in Debian stretch (it is included in the texinfo 6.3.0.dfsg.1-1 package, available in that release). Note 2: Support for SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH in makeinfo was also added[5] upstream and is included in version 6.5.0 of texinfo. Regards, James [1] - https://salsa.debian.org/python-team/packages/python-xlib/-/commit/8ed87d9cccba52aea8b473d610802cd7e1f9df90 [2] - https://tests.reproducible-builds.org/debian/rb-pkg/stretch/amd64/diffoscope-results/python-xlib.html [3] - https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?att=1;bug=961764;filename=texi2html.debdiff.diff;msg=10 [4] - https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?att=1;bug=826158;filename=reproducible-info-output;msg=5 [5] - http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/texinfo.git/commit/?id=08a0f0c9efa657a461a654b73b840bfdacbbd5aa
