Re: Set FORCE_SOURCE_DATE=1 by default

[Maxim Cournoyer]

Hi Vagrant,

Vagrant Cascadian <vagrant@reproducible-builds.org> writes:

> So, guix sets SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=1 by default in
> guix/build/gnu-build-system.scm, which is great!
>
> This allows guix packages in many cases to build packages reproducibly,
> with a curious side-effect that takes us all back to the early 70s in
> some corner-cases (or even late 60s, dependent on timezone).
>
> That said, some projects (such as texlive) might be worried about
> messing with time too much (I get it, lots of cautionary sci-fi
> stories!), and so you *also* need FORCE_SOURCE_DATE=1 to be set in order
> to respect SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH.

That seems ridiculous.  Has anyone tried getting in touch with them to
get their arguments about why inventing another variable that means the
same thing was necessary?

I'd much prefer challenging that stance than "endorsing" it in Guix :-).
I think it'd be OK to reluctantly add it in as a stop-gap fix in Guix,
but *only* after opening an issue to discuss it upstream and linking to
that issue in Guix.

Thanks,

Maxim