#825222 lintian: please allow debian/source/timestamps in unknown-file-in-debian-source

Package:
lintian
Source:
lintian
Submitter:
Paul Gevers
Date:
2025-01-18 12:27:02 UTC
Severity:
normal
Tags:
#825222#5
Date:
2016-05-24 19:04:41 UTC
From:
To:
In the Free Pascal stack, it is common to have .ppu files. Consider them sort
of binary header files. Unfortunately, these files contain the timestamp of the
source file. This is undesirable because when these files are patched, the
timestamp of the build is stored in those ppu files and so:
1) the build becomes unreproducible¹
2) reverse dependent packages think the source was updated and will require a
rebuild of the source

To circumvent this I am adding a helper function to the fpc package (see
discussions on the pascal-devel list²) to store timestamps in the debian
packaging and use those to force the timestamps to something resonable. I
intent to store those timestamps in debian/source/timestamps.

I think that is a resonable place, so please don't error out on it in
unknown-file-in-debian-source.

Thanks for lintian.
Paul

¹ https://wiki.debian.org/ReproducibleBuilds/TimestampsInPPUGeneratedByFPC
² http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-pascal-devel/Week-of-Mon-20160516/001234.html

- -- System Information:
Debian Release: 8.4
  APT prefers stable-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable'), (60, 'unstable'), (50, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
iQEcBAEBCAAGBQJXRKW+AAoJEJxcmesFvXUK2loH/Rue6UlBKxIkBOuPdiDLj03o
tx0p3cl/oJuurRH9KWyO3gP1zDfkufwQP96vAPYUutCkczypOo4qoSxnyuBwAJzL
qM/qhFEwj68SVvq9PdAe4IBEy8U1/XCeZ+qkAgDWwYVMO6Hm9jF3DFMpKbi92zm3
leOqyyhXsY/8R2vA6GvAQnqodLceZw6NI3h4wEd4LAC8wlErVBlcNEx0VEActFc6
pzyrRW2rh1UX2G9FpDQhAxgoV2qnr3hLdUGlGOKMOB12imMzUrIV7if7n4NUsIPr
q/Ks9mJTkd3cs1QjNCwU/RDEmTa0nUlnefOcrlXng8Hq8AaQLwXFnccWFhax5/Q=
=PFO1
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

#825222#10
Date:
2017-10-21 01:55:16 UTC
From:
To:
tags 825222 + moreinfo
thanks

Hi Paul,

Why not debian/timestamps? In a de facto sense, it seems like debian/source
is "reserved" for the dpkg source format.


Regards,

#825222#17
Date:
2017-10-21 06:06:46 UTC
From:
To:
Hi

Because there are already so many files in debian/ and I liked the idea
because it manipulates the source (like a patch).

Anyways, the "I intend to" ship has sailed. Multiple packages now use
fp-fix-timestamps and I don't think it is worth the hassle of changing
fp-fix-timestamps to move the location (and be backwards compatible in a
smart way) and adapt those packages. Overriding lintian (as those
packages now do) is easier.

Paul

#825222#22
Date:
2017-10-21 12:46:26 UTC
From:
To:
tags 825222 + wontfix
thanks

Hi Paul,

Whilst I understand what you mean, I'm not completely convinced :) I mean,
almost everything under debian/ "manipulates the source" and, again,
the "source" subdirectory is — at least to me — de facto reserved for the
source format in a dpkg sense.

I'm thus marking this at wontfix; feel free to continue to use your
overrides [0].

  [0] https://lintian.debian.org/tags/unknown-file-in-debian-source.html


Regards,

#825222#29
Date:
2019-01-01 14:42:48 UTC
From:
To:
Chris Lamb wrote:
[…]

(I'm actually going to go ahead and close this.)


Regards,

#825222#40
Date:
2023-01-07 13:04:33 UTC
From:
To:
Control: reopen -1

Hi Dear Lintian maintainer,

I recently was interested in solving Lintian errors on FPC and friends and got
pointed to this ticket.
I tend to agree with Paul that the timestamps file is better located in
debian/source folder and would lobby for that.
Can you please reassess this request?

#825222#45
Date:
2023-01-15 19:21:49 UTC
From:
To:
Hi,

Abou Al Montacir wrote:
https://codesearch.debian.net/search?q=2022+path%3Adebian%2Fsource%2Ftimestamps&literal=1
and it seems that exactly 2 source packages (fpc and lazarus) are using this.

Just affecting two packages is IMHO a valid case for lintian
overrides.

It's though a small change with practically no chance for false
positives, so I'm no directly opposed to implementing it.

I though wonder: Are more packages expected to use that? I mean, the
initial bug report ist from 2016 and I only see two packages using it.

This seems to be the wrong audience for a discussion about the
location of that file. Such a discussion should come _before_ Lintian is
asked to implement something.

		Regards, Axel

#825222#50
Date:
2023-02-18 10:45:05 UTC
From:
To:
Hi Alex,
https://codesearch.debian.net/search?q=2022+path%3Adebian%2Fsource%2Ftimestamps&
literal=1

Yes indeed, only tow packages for now are using this file, but theoretically any
package built by FPC may need this.

I may agree, but I failed to find the right syntax to override this error.
There seem also 9 packages they do the same according
to https://lintian.debian.org/tags/unknown-file-in-debian-source

So are you sur the override is working, and if yes, how to do it.
We tried https://sources.debian.org/src/fpc/3.2.2%2Bdfsg-
18/debian/source/lintian-overrides/
but also several other syntaxes and it fails. It seems no package managed to
override it as far as I can search.
I do Agree here about what you said, but we should just know how to override it,
if ever possible.

#825222#55
Date:
2023-03-14 20:03:25 UTC
From:
To:
On Sat, 18 Feb 2023 11:45:05 +0100 Abou Al Montacir <abou.almontacir@sfr.fr> wrote:

 > >
 > > Just affecting two packages is IMHO a valid case for lintian
 > > overrides.
 >
 > I may agree, but I failed to find the right syntax to override this error.


Hi Abou,

the syntax is just to have the error string, and nothing else on the line, ie.

# In 3.0.0+dfsg-5 elbrus added fp-fix-timestamps that expects d/source/timestamps
# lintian bug: http://bugs.debian.org/825222
unknown-file-in-debian-source


Cheers,
Peter