Hi,

debian-reference-common current fails to reproduce:

https://reproduce.debian.net/all/unstable.html#debian-reference-common

From my analysis this is due to the timestamp in the debian/changelog
being set to the future with respect to the time of the upload to the
Debian archive. This breaks the automatic clamping of the files in the
binary package and makes the package non reproducible. As the package is
arch:all we can't simply binNMU it. Please upload a new source package
with a timestamp not set to the future.

Thanks!

Jochen

Control: severity -1 wishlist
Control: retitle -1 Make build of debian-reference reproducible

Sat, 29 Aug 2026 00:34:50 +0900

This is using +0900 Timezone (JST)

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 17:33:57 +0000

This is using +0000 Timezone (UT)

I don't know about automatic clamping mechanism but if it doesn't understand
timezone, that's broken logic..

FYI: this broken reproducible build is not a news for me.  Unfortunately, PDF
generation using TeX is a monster to tame for reproducible build.

I thought the broken reproducible build is not "normal" bug.  If this is deemed
as "RC" bug, I plan to drop PDF building.

Patches welcome.

Regards,

Osamu

Hi,

Thanks to your keen eyes.

Your direct mail to me correctly identified real issue in Makefile.

Considering how I update this source, it is better to remove timestamp instead
of using d/changelog-based date there.

I will.

I didn't realize these.  Thanks for your reminder.


Osamu

* Osamu Aoki <osamu.aoki@gmail.com> [2026-08-31 19:54]:

Oups, you are right, the timestamp is fine.

Huh, the pdf generation seems fine. For reference the diff is:

--- /srv/rebuilderd/tmp/rebuilderdFW8zSy/inputs/debian-reference-common_2.148_all.deb
+++ /srv/rebuilderd/tmp/rebuilderdFW8zSy/out/debian-reference-common_2.148_all.deb
├── control.tar.xz
│ ├── control.tar
│ │ ├── ./md5sums
│ │ │ ├── ./md5sums
│ │ │ │┄ Files differ
├── data.tar.xz
│ ├── data.tar
│ │ ├── ./usr/share/doc/debian-reference-common/po_completed.md
│ │ │ @@ -9,8 +9,8 @@
│ │ │  * es  98 %       -- COMPLETED translation (must be more than 40%)
│ │ │  * sv  97 %       -- COMPLETED translation (must be more than 40%)
│ │ │  * fr  97 %       -- COMPLETED translation (must be more than 40%)
│ │ │  * de  97 %       -- COMPLETED translation (must be more than 40%)
│ │ │  * pt-br  79 %       -- COMPLETED translation (must be more than 40%)
│ │ │  * zh-tw  75 %       -- COMPLETED translation (must be more than 40%)
│ │ │
│ │ │ -2026-08-28T17:47:44+00:00
│ │ │ +2026-08-30T21:51:46+00:00

Which seems to be due to this commit:

https://salsa.debian.org/debian/debian-reference/-/commit/41395db53a33d8c0347c5aa79e6e11536c6f4479

The attached patch should fix this.

Reproducibility regressions block testing migration, see:

https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2026/05/msg00001.html
https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2026/05/msg00383.html
https://qa.debian.org/excuses.php?package=debian-reference

Could you apply the patch and upload a new version?

Thanks!

Jochen

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
debian-reference, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.

A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 1146014@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org> (supplier of updated debian-reference package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@ftp-master.debian.org)
Format: 1.8
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2026 21:07:34 +0900
Source: debian-reference
Architecture: source
Version: 2.149
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>
Changed-By: Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>
Closes: 1146014
Changes:
 debian-reference (2.149) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   [ Américo Monteiro ]
   * Translated using Weblate (Portuguese)
 .
   [ xiao sheng wen(肖盛文) ]
   * Translated using Weblate (Chinese (Simplified Han script))
 .
   [ Osamu Aoki ]
   * Remove build time stamp (Closes: #1146014)
   * make po
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