[pacman-dev] [PATCH] set .SRCINFO time stamp to PKGBUILD modification

[Dominik Fischer]

As the .SRCINFO is mandatory for a git push to AUR, it is tempting to
automate its generation, for example in a git hook. This also saves the
developer from accidentally uploading a change to the PKGBUILD without
it being properly reflected in the .SRCINFO.

But when only files other than the PKGBUILD were changed, or a change to
the PKGBUILD did not affect the contents of the .SRCINFO, the time stamp
still changes on each run of mksrcinfo, introducing an unnecessary and
possibly misleading change to the otherwise unaltered .SRCINFO file.
This especially impairs the use of commands examining the history, like
"git log .SRCINFO".

Using the last modification time of the PKGBUILD in place of the date
the .SRCINFO was generated alleviates at least part of this problem.
---

More than a ready proposal for a change, this patch is an inquiry about
the reason for the time stamp. As noted above, I find it quite
impractical while maintaining packages in the AUR. Above that, the
information seems redundant, as all package repositories are versioned
with git, where each commit already carries a date, usually only a few
seconds behind the time stamp.

I originally posted this issue to the pkgbuild-introspection project
[1], but as pacman sets the standard for the .SRCINFO format, this
mailing list is the more appropriate place for it.

I am aware that git attributes and filters could be used to modify or
delete the timestamp, but am reluctant to deviate from the norm be it
only for a mere comment, as long a I do not know its purpose. Why is the
time stamp there? Would it be sensible to switch it out for the PKGBUILD
modification date? Could it even be removed?

[1]: https://github.com/falconindy/pkgbuild-introspection/issues/32


  scripts/makepkg.sh.in | 2 +-
  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/scripts/makepkg.sh.in b/scripts/makepkg.sh.in
index 80b95f4..00e532b 100644
--- a/scripts/makepkg.sh.in
+++ b/scripts/makepkg.sh.in
@@ -1084,7 +1084,7 @@ write_srcinfo() {
  	local pkg
  
  	printf "# Generated by makepkg %s\n" "$makepkg_version"
-	printf "# %s\n" "$(LC_ALL=C date -u)"
+	printf "# %s\n" "$(LC_ALL=C date -ud @$(stat -c %Y "$BUILDFILE"))"
  
  	srcinfo_write_global
  
-- 
2.7.1