Re: RFC: Sort tarballs created by the src-release.sh script

[Jan Beulich <jbeulich@suse.com>]

On 05.10.2022 14:23, Nick Clifton wrote:
> Hi Guys,
> 
> On 10/4/22 08:10, Jan Beulich wrote:
>> Every commit should be considered to affect the tarball, imo, as such
>> effects could also be indirect. If you really wanted to go that route,
>> then perhaps an alternative would be to use the commit date of the
>> most recent commit touching bfd/version.m4.
> 
> Hmm, except that would probably only be appropriate for binutils tarballs,
> not others.
> 
> So how about the attached patch ?  This one adds a new command line option to
> src-release.sh.  If it is not used then the behaviour is not changed in any
> way.  If the new option is used, it provides a date that is passed to tar's
> --mtime option, along with triggering the use of sort and the other tar
> options necessary to make a reproducible tarball.  So:
> 
>    src-release.sh -x -r `git log -1 --format=%cd --date=format:%F bfd/version.m4` binutils
> 
> should create a pretty consistent tarball.

Lgtm, fwiw. Just one nit: You may want to add the missing 'b' for
"tarball" in the new help text line.

Jan