[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Updating dpkg-buildflags to enable reproducible=+fixfilepath by default



On 2020-11-13, Sune Vuorela wrote:
> On 2020-10-27, Vagrant Cascadian <vagrant@reproducible-builds.org> wrote:
>> Though, of course, identifying the exact reproducibility problem would
>> be preferable. One of the common issues is test suites relying on the
>> behavior of __FILE__ returning a full path to find fixtures or other
>> test data.
>
> has QFIND_TESTDATA been adapted to work with this, or are we just
> "lucky" that most packages don't actually build and run test suites?

Yes, QFINDTESTDATA is one of the primary (only?) issues with test suites
found in about 20-30 packages in the archive, according to the
archive-wide rebuild that was performed. For most of those packages
patches have been submitted, and some are already either fixed or marked
as pending.

If it could be fixed at the core for QFINDTESTDATA, that would be nicer
than fixing 20-30 packages individually, though we're not there right
now.


> I don't think that we should make it harder for maintainers to enable
> test suites on their packages

Similarly, I don't think we should make it harder to make hundreds of
packages more reproducible just to avoid a trivial workaround. We're
talking about a one-line change in debian/rules in a small number of
packages, as opposed to the 30000 packages that need no changes.


> when we can just record the filepath in
> the build info and still have things reproducible.

Sure, rebuilding packages in the same path is a relatively easy
workaround to the build path issue. It does have some drawbacks:

* More complicated infrastructure to recreate the build environment.

* The .buildinfo files need to include the build path by default, which
  I believe is enabled for most buildd machines, but not the default for
  dpkg-genbuildinfo (and there may be some privacy concerns to making it
  the default).


So, it will take some work to make this change in Debian and because it
seems to affect QT related test suites, it affects the teams working
with QT more than the rest of Debian.

Because of that, I did individual builds for all the affected packages,
and submitted patches to workaround this issue to try and minimize the
extra work needed by any affected maintainers or teams.


I still would like for Debian to move forward with this change.


live well,
  vagrant

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: PGP signature


Reply to: