[Wylug-help] Reproduceable kernel build.

[Timothy Baldwin]

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On Monday 02 Jun 2003 10:12 am, Thomas, Nicholas wrote:

> The method chosen involves doing md5 checksums on the all the binary
> deliverable parts of the product.
>
> However, the linux kernel uses __DATE__ and __TIME__ macros in various
> source files. And also it uses `date` in the top level Makefile and puts
> this into the compile.h file. This means that some files get different
> checksum values on subsequent builds because the date/time doesn't match
> exactly.

They are only used in human readable strings, and can safely be changed into
constant strings, assuming no software is using them to identify paritcular
kernel builds. I haven't tried this myself.

> Also there is a lib.a in the kernel which appears to be different after
> each build (not sure what is causing this to be different).

It contains timestamps of it's compoment object files.

> 3) Give the formal testers instructions on how to do the build, plus report
> produces in step (2).

Give them the kernel source and the .config file, and specify exact versions
of gcc (and binutils).


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