• Bug#1102631: gnome-nibbles FTCBFS: fails to compute the build time

    From Helmut Grohne@21:1/5 to All on Fri Apr 11 11:00:01 2025
    Source: gnome-nibbles
    Version: 1:4.2.0-1
    Tags: patch upstream
    User: debian-cross@lists.debian.org
    Usertags: ftcbfs

    gnome-nibbles fails to cross build from source, because it attempts to
    compute the build timestamp using the host compiler. In theory, that
    should be breaking reproducibility, but practically it does not as that
    time is not actually being used in the resulting package.

    I therefore propose to completely drop the machinery to compute and
    record a build timestamp. If you absolutely must, please use the native compiler instead of the cross compiler here.

    Helmut

    --- gnome-nibbles-4.2.0.orig/meson.build
    +++ gnome-nibbles-4.2.0/meson.build
    @@ -215,23 +215,6 @@

    message('valac #defines:',vala_if_defines)

    -# get build date/time
    -time_code = '''
    - #include <stdio.h>
    - #include <time.h>
    - int main()
    - {
    - char buffer[64];
    - time_t seconds_since_epoch = time(NULL);
    - strftime (buffer, 64, "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M GMT", gmtime(&seconds_since_epoch));
    - fputs (buffer, stdout);
    - return 0;
    - }'''
    -time = c.run(time_code)
    -if time.compiled()
    - message('build date',time.stdout())
    -endif
    -
    # Configuration
    conf = configuration_data()
    conf.set_quoted('GETTEXT_PACKAGE', meson.project_name())
    @@ -240,11 +223,6 @@
    conf.set_quoted('LOCALEDIR', join_paths(prefix, localedir))
    conf.set_quoted('VERSION', get_option('version') + get_option('append_to_version'))
    conf.set_quoted('WEBSITE', get_option('website'))
    -if time.compiled()
    - conf.set_quoted('BUILD_DATETIME', time.stdout())
    -else
    - conf.set_quot