Re: Comparison of busybox.net and busybox_mirror

On 5/8/26 21:20, Michael D. Setzer II via busybox wrote:
> On 8 May 2026 at 17:28, Emmanuel Deloget wrote:
> 
> From:           	Emmanuel Deloget <[email protected]>
> Date sent:      	Fri, 8 May 2026 17:28:34 +0200
> Subject:        	Re: Comparison of busybox.net and
> busybox_mirror
> To:             	[email protected]
> Copies to:      	[email protected]
> 
>> Hello Michael,
>>
>> Le jeu. 7 mai 2026 à 23:48, Michael D. Setzer II via busybox
>> <[email protected]> a écrit :
>>>
>>> git pull on busybox_mirror
>>> git remote set-url origin
>>> https://github.com/vda-linux/busybox_mirror
>>> git pull
>>> ead17e7808236be80614d0a8755f4ddad63ab56c PRE__PULL
>>> ead17e7808236be80614d0a8755f4ddad63ab56c POST_PULL
>>> Nothing changed (Already up to date).
>>>
>>> git pull on busybox.net
>>> git remote set-url origin https://git.busybox.net/busybox
>>> git pull
>>> ead17e7808236be80614d0a8755f4ddad63ab56c PRE__PULL
>>> ead17e7808236be80614d0a8755f4ddad63ab56c POST_PULL
>>> Nothing changed (Already up to date).
>>>
>>> built busybox with same .config file
>>> # cmp -l busybox/busybox busybox_mirror/busybox
>>>     809  26  76
>>>     810 102 323
>>>     811 174 162
>>>     812 121 274
>>>     813 301 277
>>>     814 123 234
>>>     815 325 341
>>>     816 311 345
>>>     817 225  45
>>>     818  60 165
>>>     819 136  55
>>>     820 312 232
>>>     821 266 177
>>>     822 322 226
>>>     823 117 343
>>>     824 166 373
>>>     825 343 242
>>>     826 333 134
>>>     827  44 147
>>>     828 126 233
>>> 450374  61  65
>>> 450375  62  65
>>> # busybox/busybox | head -n1; busybox_mirror/busybox | head -n 1
>>> BusyBox v1.38.0.git (2026-05-08 07:42:12 ChST) multi-call binary.
>>> BusyBox v1.38.0.git (2026-05-08 07:42:55 ChST) multi-call binary.
>>
>> As far as I know, there are some specific conditions and environment
>> to set up for a reproducible build of busybox ; for one,
>> KCONFIG_NOTIMESTAMP shall be set (in your example, it's clearly not
>> set, as the binary includes the build date). You can get more
>> information at https://wiki.debian.org/ReproducibleBuilds ; you might
>> be able to find some other sources as well. Unless you are in the
>> required environment, different builds may give you different results
>> (which is you case here).
>>
> 
> Thanks for info, I've heard of the option before, but have not seen
> benefit to have a fixed build for my project. Generally, lets me know
> if only these ranges are changed it means that none of the busybox
> features I use were changed between versions.
> If I build using the 1.37.0 bz2 tree versus the current 1.38 git tree
> the difference is large.
> 
> Just build a 1.37 build in current directory, and have 1.38 build in
> bin. Sizes are a little different and almost every byte is different.
>   cmp -l /bin/busybox ./busybox | wc -l
> cmp: EOF on ‘./busybox’ after byte 468376
> 431225
> # ls -l /bin/busybox ./busybox
> 472456 May  5 12:53 /bin/busybox
> 468376 May  9 05:10 ./busybox
> 
> # /bin/busybox | head -n1; ./busybox | head -n1
> BusyBox v1.38.0.git (2026-05-05 12:53:35 ChST) multi-call binary.
> BusyBox v1.37.0 (2026-05-09 05:09:44 ChST) multi-call binary.


Is this some kind of joke? Why would anyone compare binaries of 
open-source software such as busybox.

Are you aware of the all the various compiler, header and library 
details that may differ between two different binaries even on the same 
distribution?

I hardly doubt there is anything to learn here for the development of 
busybox, this rather belongs to some esoteric "cyber-security" forensics 
group that the list about busybox source code development.

Bye
Tim

> 
> So, busybox shows the date of compile, but one must know 1.37.0 is
> using code 27 September 2024, whereas the 1.38.0 git is using code
> up to that patches in the git pull. Which is currently May 3, 2026
> 
> Thanks again.
> 
>> Best regards,
>>
>> -- Emmanuel Deloget
>>
>>> +------------------------------------------------------------+
>>>   Michael D. Setzer II - Computer Science Instructor (Retired)
>>>   mailto:[email protected]
>>>   mailto:[email protected]
>>>   mailto:[email protected]
>>>   Guam - Where America's Day Begins
>>>   G4L Disk Imaging Project maintainer
>>>   http://sourceforge.net/projects/g4l/
>>> +------------------------------------------------------------+
> 
> 
> +------------------------------------------------------------+
>   Michael D. Setzer II - Computer Science Instructor (Retired)
>   mailto:[email protected]
>   mailto:[email protected]
>   mailto:[email protected]
>   Guam - Where America's Day Begins
>   G4L Disk Imaging Project maintainer
>   http://sourceforge.net/projects/g4l/
> +------------------------------------------------------------+
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
decentral.ch - IT Stuff
Tim Tassonis
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8003 Zürich
[email protected]
+41 79 229 36 17

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