Re: autobuilding and embedded timestamps

[Edmund GRIMLEY EVANS <edmundo@rano.org>]

Wichert Akkerman <wichert@valinux.com>:

> > But sometimes it is hard to detect convergence because of embedded
> > timestamps. All ar archives contain embedded timestamps (my system has
> > 3 .a files), and also bzImage and lilo contain deliberately inserted
> > timestamps. Fortunately the kernel's timestamp is not in the
> > compressed part of the image.
> 
> So fix your compare to ignore difference in time? I find those times to
> be quite valuable.

The trouble is that only the linux-kernel package, say, can know how
to ignore the timestamp inside a kernel image. So each package would
have to export its own version of compare. Moreover, the system would
be less robust, because there might be a bug in one of the compare
functions, and that would be hard to detect.

Why do you find those times to be valuable (more valuable than they
would be if they were replaced by the date of the source diff)?

Edmund