Bug#1136689: libreoffice-dictionaries: please make the build reproducible

Source: libreoffice-dictionaries
Version: 1:26.2.3.2-3
Severity: wishlist
Tags: patch
User: [email protected]
Usertags: timestamps
X-Debbugs-Cc: [email protected]

Hi,

Whilst working on the Reproducible Builds effort [0], we noticed that
libreoffice-dictionaries could not be built reproducibly.

This is because executing dictionaries/pt_BR/test_compile_rules.py in
the dh_auto_test target generates a __pycache__ directory that is not
removed afterwards and creating this directory bumps the modification
time of the surrounding directory.

This last means that if the tests are *skipped* via nocheck, then this
directory will retain its original, upstream timestamp.

A patch is attached that deletes this __pycache__ directory and then
always sets the mtime of this directory to a deterministic value (which
is easier than trying to save and restore upstream's timestamp).

 [0] https://reproducible-builds.org/


Regards,