From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: "Thompson, David" <dthompson2@worcester.edu>
Subject: Re: Deterministic Library Calls when Building
Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2016 08:51:01 -0400
Message-ID: <CAJ=RwfY6V0a5L-zOG82_Xh7n5L2=nqJXWQLFvqA0zQKYt6ztuw@mail.gmail.com>
References: <CABnEbCEbe3FANSLD_CakFoAFER4ra4oc6+F=iEGBC55wTbjzCw@mail.gmail.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Return-path: <guix-devel-bounces+gcggd-guix-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org>
Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:49354)
	by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71)
	(envelope-from <dthompson2@worcester.edu>) id 1ahcox-00046K-AF
	for guix-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 20 Mar 2016 08:51:04 -0400
Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71)
	(envelope-from <dthompson2@worcester.edu>) id 1ahcow-0003Bd-Ec
	for guix-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 20 Mar 2016 08:51:03 -0400
Received: from mail-yw0-x22c.google.com ([2607:f8b0:4002:c05::22c]:34412)
	by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71)
	(envelope-from <dthompson2@worcester.edu>) id 1ahcow-0003BZ-9d
	for guix-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 20 Mar 2016 08:51:02 -0400
Received: by mail-yw0-x22c.google.com with SMTP id h129so188456654ywb.1
	for <guix-devel@gnu.org>; Sun, 20 Mar 2016 05:51:01 -0700 (PDT)
In-Reply-To: <CABnEbCEbe3FANSLD_CakFoAFER4ra4oc6+F=iEGBC55wTbjzCw@mail.gmail.com>
List-Id: "Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution."
	<guix-devel.gnu.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/options/guix-devel>,
	<mailto:guix-devel-request@gnu.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel>
List-Post: <mailto:guix-devel@gnu.org>
List-Help: <mailto:guix-devel-request@gnu.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/guix-devel>,
	<mailto:guix-devel-request@gnu.org?subject=subscribe>
Errors-To: guix-devel-bounces+gcggd-guix-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org
Sender: guix-devel-bounces+gcggd-guix-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org
To: Karl Semich <fuzzytew@gmail.com>
Cc: guix-devel <guix-devel@gnu.org>

On Sun, Mar 20, 2016 at 6:04 AM, Karl Semich <fuzzytew@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I recently learned about guix and I haven't found any information on
> approaching deterministic builds by changing library and kernel
> functions to have deterministic behavior.  Has anybody done this?
>
> For example, I would imagine if I needed timestamps to no longer be a
> factor, I might change how the current time is reported to the build
> environment, such that it is always precisely equal to the time of
> last modification of the source package.  Similarly /dev/*random
> should return deterministic numbers seeded by perhaps the hash of the
> source package and all dependencies.
>
> Has there been a discussion of this somewhere?

I'm not sure if there has been an on-the-record discussion of this
anywhere, but I have thought about similar things re: random numbers.
Maybe this thread is the time to discuss? :)

- Dave