mmdebstrap has a couple of places in which it copies host configuration
into the bootstrapped system. For instance, it puts the host's hostname
into /etc/hostname, and copies in the host's /etc/resolv.conf. Please
consider providing a single option that suppresses all current and
future uses of the host configuration, to make it easier to build
reproducible installations.

The manpage mentions using a customize-hook to handle those two files,
but given the common need for reproducible installations, it'd be nice
to have this become simpler and standardized.

Hi,

Quoting Josh Triplett (2023-06-17 20:37:47)
from the same host because of these two files it copies in. You are right in
that it should be easier to prevent those two files from messing up
reproducibility.

The next question becomes: what should be done about /etc/hostname and
/etc/resolv.conf? What should their reproducible content be?

Or should they just be deleted?

You are not the only one who wants such an option:

https://gitlab.mister-muffin.de/josch/mmdebstrap/issues/26
https://gitlab.mister-muffin.de/josch/mmdebstrap/issues/33

As I've explained in the first of above issue, I'd rather add a hook than a
command line flag because all instances that I can come up with where you want
to run mmdebstrap to create bit-by-bit reproducible output, you run it from a
script and not manually type the command from the terminal. Can you confirm
this?

Thanks!

cheers josch

Hi,

TLDR: there is no one-size-fits-all solution and mmdebstrap tries to do what
debootstrap does. Usually reproducibility is required when mmdebstrap is run
from a script and in that case, adding a hook which does the right thing is
easy and documented with examples in the man page.

Quoting Johannes Schauer Marin Rodrigues (2023-06-17 21:34:48)

I would like to suggest to those who run into this bug to try and convince
debootstrap maintainers to improve reproducibility and no longer copy in
/etc/hostname and /etc/resolv.conf. I fear this is not going to happen because
it's just too convenient to have these two files get copied from the host.

The man page now contains quite a bit of documentation about what mmdebstrap
does and what to do to change its behaviour:

If you are interested in bit-by-bit reproducible mmdebstrap output, then you
are probably running it from a script and in that case, just add the hooks
which do what your use-case requires.

Thanks!

cheers, josch