#1146748 texlive-xetex: reproducibility issue: PDF composed with Creator field containing the time at building

Package:
texlive-xetex
Source:
texlive-xetex
Submitter:
Jerome BENOIT
Date:
2026-09-19 11:05:02 UTC
Severity:
normal
#1146748#5
Date:
2026-09-05 10:29:59 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

it appears that xelatex composes PDF files with a Creator field
containing the date at composing time (without taking into account
SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH). We can reproduce the issue as follows:

  $ SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=0 xelatex sample2e
  $ TZ=UTC pdfinfo sample2e.pdf | grep Creat

In an uptodate Debian/Sid schroot environment, the last command outputs:

  Creator:          XeTeX output 2026.09.05:1027
  CreationDate:    Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970 UTC

hth,
Jerome



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#1146748#10
Date:
2026-09-07 05:31:15 UTC
From:
To:
Reassign to package carrying the xetex binary.

Hilmar

05.09.2026 12:33:22 Jerome BENOIT <calculus@debian.org>:
#1146748#19
Date:
2026-09-16 21:37:44 UTC
From:
To:
On 9/5/26 12:29 PM, Jerome BENOIT wrote:

Hello,
reported to upstream for now.

Hilmar
#1146748#26
Date:
2026-09-19 11:02:14 UTC
From:
To:
On 9/5/26 12:29 PM, Jerome BENOIT wrote:

Hello Jerome,
Karl Berry suggests to set FORCE_SOURCE_DATE=1 in addition. Is that helpful?

SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=0 FORCE_SOURCE_DATE=1 xelatex 1146748.tex

(arm64-sid)hille@rasppi3:~$ TZ=UTC pdfinfo 1146748.pdf | egrep 'Creat|Prod'
Creator:          XeTeX output 1970.01.01:0000
Producer:        xdvipdfmx (20260317)
CreationDate:    Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970 UTC

Hilmar