#1054170 graphviz: dot generates unreproducible pdfs with embedded timestamps

Package:
graphviz
Source:
graphviz
Description:
rich set of graph drawing tools
Submitter:
Daniel Gröber
Date:
2026-02-25 01:05:01 UTC
Severity:
normal
#1054170#5
Date:
2023-10-18 15:44:02 UTC
From:
To:
Hi Laszlo,

my package yosys uses `dot` as part of it's documentaion build, I've
been battling reproducibility issues in that part of the packaging for
a while now and I think I've finally tracked it down to a problem in
graphviz.

dot appears to embed CreationDate in the pdf and this cannot be
controlled with SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH.

Repro:

    $ echo 'digraph { a -> b }' > test.dot
    $ SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=60 dot -Tpdf test.dot -o test.pdf
    $ dumppdf -adt test.pdf 2>/dev/null | grep '<key>CreationDate' -A1
    <key>CreationDate</key>
    <value><string size="22">D:20231018173926+02'00</string></value>

Note: dumppdf is from python3-pdfminer.

Thanks,
--Daniel
#1054170#10
Date:
2023-10-18 19:24:11 UTC
From:
To:
Hi Daniel,
Can you please test it with the Graphviz version 9.0 in experimental?
I don't expect it to be different, but I would like to be sure.

Thanks,
Laszlo/GCS
#1054170#15
Date:
2023-10-18 20:06:59 UTC
From:
To:
Seems -Tpdf doesn't work for with 9.0 some reason, is a configure option
for that missing perhaps?:

    $ SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=60 dot -T pdf test.dot -o test.pdf
    Format: "pdf" not recognized. Use one of: canon cmap cmapx cmapx_np dot
    dot_json eps fig gd gd2 gif gv imap imap_np ismap jpe jpeg jpg json
    json0 mp pic plain plain-ext png pov ps ps2 svg svgz tk vrml wbmp xdot
    xdot1.2 xdot1.4 xdot_json
#1054170#20
Date:
2023-10-24 21:05:21 UTC
From:
To:
Hi Daniel,
 You need to install the libgvplugin-pango as well. Please do it and
test your case again. But my own testing shows CreationDate is still
embedded in PDF files generated by graphviz.

Cheers,
Laszlo/GCS
#1054170#25
Date:
2026-02-25 01:03:40 UTC
From:
To:
In theory this was resolved in upstream commit
8ffd662dc2bed7eff9dba2e21fca6cb701c5b90f that made it into Graphviz 10.0.1.