---
layout: blog
week: 121
published: 2017-08-25 19:08:21
---

Here's what happened in the [Reproducible Builds](https://reproducible-builds.org) effort between Sunday August 13 and Saturday August 19 2017:

Reproducible Builds finally mandated by Debian Policy
-----------------------------------------------------

"Packages should build reproducibly" [was merged into Debian
policy](https://anonscm.debian.org/git/dbnpolicy/policy.git/commit/?id=bf256860fbf9d7dccc05fe1aa85841b7a1b1d712)! The added text is as follows and
has been [included into debian-policy 4.1.0.0](https://tracker.debian.org/news/864773):

<pre>
Reproducibility
---------------

Packages should build reproducibly, which for the purposes of this
document [#]_ means that given

- a version of a source package unpacked at a given path;
- a set of versions of installed build dependencies;
- a set of environment variable values;
- a build architecture; and
- a host architecture,

repeatedly building the source package for the build architecture on
any machine of the host architecture with those versions of the build
dependencies installed and exactly those environment variable values
set will produce bit-for-bit identical binary packages.

It is recommended that packages produce bit-for-bit identical binaries
even if most environment variables and build paths are varied.  It is
intended for this stricter standard to replace the above when it is
easier for packages to meet it.

.. [#]
   This is Debian's precisification of the `reproducible-builds.org
   definition <https://reproducible-builds.org/docs/definition/>`_.

</pre>


* Holger Levsen [wrote a blog post](https://layer-acht.org/thinking/blog/20170812-reproducible-policy/)
  briefly describing the background and implications of this. To quote him: "we are *not 94% done* yet, rather more like half done or so. We still need tools and processes to *enable anyone to independently verify* that a given binary comes from the sources it is said to be coming, this will involve distributing `.buildinfo` files and providing user interfaces in APT and elsewhere and probably also systematic rebuilds by us and other parties. And 6% or 7% of the archive is still a lot of packages, eg. in Buster we currently still have [273 unreproducible key packages](https://tests.reproducible-builds.org/debian/buster/amd64/pkg_set_key_packages.html) and for a large part we don't have patches yet so there is still a lot of work ahead."
* There were discussion threads on [Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15010438)
  and [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/debian/comments/6touxc/new_debian_policy_packages_should_be_reproducible/).
* Our long-term goal is that Policy mandates that packages "must" be reproducible, but for that we need to show further progress and also reach a consensus on `.buildinfo` files and much more.

Reproducible work in other projects
-----------------------------------

Bernhard M. Wiedemann's [reproducibleopensuse
scripts](https://github.com/bmwiedemann/reproducibleopensuse) now
[work on Debian buster](https://github.com/openSUSE/obs-build/pull/376) on the
openSUSE Build Service with the latest versions of
[osc](https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:OSC) and
[obs-build](https://github.com/openSUSE/obs-build).


Toolchain development and fixes
-------------------------------

[#872514](https://bugs.debian.org/872514) was opened on [devscripts](https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/devscripts) by Chris Lamb to add a
`reproducible-check` program to report on the reproducibility status of
installed packages.


Packages reviewed and fixed, and bugs filed
-------------------------------------------

Upstream reports:

* Bernhard M. Wiedemann:
  * [qt5/base](https://codereview.qt-project.org/202999), `SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH`
    support.

Debian reports:

* Adrian Bunk:
  * [#872262](https://bugs.debian.org/872262) filed against [jellyfish](https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/jellyfish).
  * [#872675](https://bugs.debian.org/872675) filed against [pdp](https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/pdp).
  * [#872678](https://bugs.debian.org/872678) filed against [gem](https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gem).
* Chris Lamb:
  * [#872453](https://bugs.debian.org/872453) filed against [isa-support](https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/isa-support).
  * [#872459](https://bugs.debian.org/872459) filed against [python-numpy](https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/python-numpy).
  * [#872460](https://bugs.debian.org/872460) filed against [gcab](https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gcab), forwarded
    [upstream](https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=786435).
  * [#872514](https://bugs.debian.org/872514) filed against [devscripts](https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/devscripts).
  * [#872728](https://bugs.debian.org/872728) filed against [desktop-file-utils](https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/desktop-file-utils).
  * [#872729](https://bugs.debian.org/872729) filed against [gtk+2.0](https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gtk+2.0), forwarded
    [upstream](https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=786528), found via a
    [reproducibility issue in Tails](https://labs.riseup.net/code/issues/13440).
* Federico Brega:
  * [#872285](https://bugs.debian.org/872285) filed against [pyqt5](https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/pyqt5).
* Jeremy Bicha:
  * [#871963](https://bugs.debian.org/871963) filed against [birdfont](https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/birdfont).
* Philip Rinn:
  * [#872184](https://bugs.debian.org/872184) filed against [quilt](https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/quilt).


Debian non-maintainer uploads:

* Mattia Rizzolo:
  * [console-data](https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/console-data) (for bug [#799871](https://bugs.debian.org/799871)).


Reviews of unreproducible packages
----------------------------------

47 package reviews have been added, 58 have been updated and 39 have been removed in this week,
adding to our knowledge about [identified issues](https://tests.reproducible-builds.org/debian/index_issues.html).

4 issue types have been updated:

- Added [nondeterministic_output_generated_by_gcab toolchain](https://tests.reproducible-builds.org/issues/unstable/nondeterministic_output_generated_by_gcab toolchain_issue.html).
- Added [build_path_captured_by_python_numpy_misc_util](https://tests.reproducible-builds.org/issues/unstable/build_path_captured_by_python_numpy_misc_util_issue.html).
- Added [captures_build_path_in_sphinx_attr_links](https://tests.reproducible-builds.org/issues/unstable/captures_build_path_in_sphinx_attr_links_issue.html).
- Re-added [nondeterminstic_ordering_in_gsettings_glib_enums_xml](https://tests.reproducible-builds.org/issues/unstable/nondeterminstic_ordering_in_gsettings_glib_enums_xml_issue.html).


Weekly QA work
--------------

During our reproducibility testing, FTBFS bugs have been detected and reported by:

 - Adrian Bunk (59)
 - Bastien Roucariès (1)
 - James Clarke (1)
 - Jeremy Bicha (1)


diffoscope development
----------------------

Development [continued in
git](https://salsa.debian.org/reproducible-builds/diffoscope.git/log/),
including the following contributions:

- Ximin Luo:
  - presenters: html: Don't traverse children whose parents were already
    limited (Closes: [#871413](https://bugs.debian.org/871413))
  - On a non-GNU system, prefer tools that start with "g" for certain
    whitelisted commands. (Closes: [#871029](https://bugs.debian.org/871029))
  - Add a `--tool-prefix-binutils` CLI flag. (Closes: [#869868](https://bugs.debian.org/869868))
- Chris Lamb:
  - Temporarily revert "Bump Standards-Version to 4.0.1" to avoid spurious CI
    test failures.
  - comparators.xml: Use ``name`` attribute over ``path`` to avoid leaking
    comparison full path in output.
  - Code style fixes.


disorderfs development
----------------------

Development [continued in
git](https://salsa.debian.org/reproducible-builds/disorderfs.git/log/),
including the following contributions:

- Chris Lamb:
  - Add simple autopkgtest.


reprotest development
---------------------

Development [continued in
git](https://salsa.debian.org/reproducible-builds/reprotest.git/log/), including
the following contributions:

- Ximin Luo:
  - Choose an existent `HOME` for the "control" build. (Closes: [#860428](https://bugs.debian.org/860428))
  - Update `debian/changelog` with Santiago's changes.
- Santiago Torres:
  - Abstract parts of autopkgtest to support running on non-Debian systems.
  - Add a `--host-distro` flag to support that too.


tests.reproducible-builds.org
-----------------------------

Mattia fixed the script which creates the [HTML representation of our database scheme]([https://tests.reproducible-builds.org/reproducibledb.html) to not append .html twice to the filename.

Misc.
-----

This week's edition was written by Ximin Luo, Chris Lamb and Holger Levsen & reviewed by a bunch
of Reproducible Builds folks on IRC & the mailing lists.