Re: Set FORCE_SOURCE_DATE=1 by default

[Vagrant Cascadian <vagrant@reproducible-builds.org>]

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On 2022-06-15, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> Vagrant Cascadian <vagrant@reproducible-builds.org> skribis:
>
>> From 7a39330b56934accef14b5e2ac003e211c7c6c5b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
>> From: Vagrant Cascadian <vagrant@reproducible-builds.org>
>> Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2022 16:12:59 -0700
>> Subject: [PATCH] guix: gnu-build-system: Set FORCE_SOURCE_DATE in
>>  set-SOURCE-DATE-EPOCH phase.
>>
>> * guix/build/gnu-build-system.scm (set-SOURCE-DATE-EPOCH): Set
>>   FORCE_SOURCE_DATE=1. Update URL.
>
> [...]
>
>>  (define* (set-SOURCE-DATE-EPOCH #:rest _)
>> -  "Set the 'SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH' environment variable.  This is used by tools
>> -that incorporate timestamps as a way to tell them to use a fixed timestamp.
>> -See https://reproducible-builds.org/specs/source-date-epoch/."
>> -  (setenv "SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH" "1"))
>> +  "Set the 'SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH' and 'FORCE_SOURCE_DATE' environment variables.
>> +This is used by tools that incorporate timestamps as a way to tell them to use
>> +a fixed timestamp.  See https://reproducible-builds.org/docs/source-date-epoch/."
>> +  (setenv "SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH" "1")
>> +  (setenv "FORCE_SOURCE_DATE" "1"))
>
> I’d mention above that FORCE_SOURCE_DATE is honored exclusively by
> TeX Live.

It's the only *known* case so far, but in theory could be others, even
though it is strongly discouraged in the reproducible builds
documentation. That tripped me up a bit in how to word it, which is why
I changed the URL from the specification which doesn't mention
FORCE_SOURCE_DATE on principle, to the documentation URL which does, out
of pragmatism.

Suggestions for better wording welcome!


> It’s a bit of a bummer that we have to do that here, but as you point
> out, TeX Live can be used pretty much in any package and we’d rather not
> track every possible issue by hand.
>
> I think it can go to ‘core-updates’.

Wheee!

Ok, will wait a bit for some improved wording suggestions from the
community at large...


live well,
  vagrant

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