Re: [PATCH] Remove SH_USE_BSD_ECHO autoconf test.

[Axel Beckert <abe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Bart,

On Sat, Dec 24, 2016 at 01:52:31PM -0800, Bart Schaefer wrote:
> } its presence causes the downstream packages that install
> } config.h to be non-reproducible.
> 
> I don't know what that means,

it means that the resulting binaries or at least binary packages are
not bit-wise identical if built on two different machines, but on the
same (build) architecture and with the same build-dependencies.

> but it doesn't really matter ...

It matters a lot from a trust point of view. If you can reproduce a
bit-wise identical package from the same source code, you can be sure
that your copy of the code and the same compiler and dependencies were
used to produce that binary you're comparing your build to.

Please see https://reproducible-builds.org/ for more details and
background. You can track zsh's reproducibility in Debian at
https://tests.reproducible-builds.org/debian/rb-pkg/unstable/amd64/zsh.html

Or short said: +1 for any patch which helps to make zsh reproducible.

(There are IIRC further issues with yodl/LaTeX which includes build
data like time stamps, etc. in files generated by it.)

		Kind regards, Axel
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