[diffoscope] XXD diff between jar files even though diff is in an HTML file zipped inside

[Aman Sharma]

Hi,


I am trying to investigate why org.apache.syncope:3.0.6 is unable to be reproduced<https://github.com/jvm-repo-rebuild/reproducible-central/blob/master/content/org/apache/syncope/README.md> and what causes the difference.


When I diff the `ref.jar` and `reb.jar` in the zip file attached,  I see diff based on XXD which is unclear. These jars are based on the aritfact `syncope-client-idrepo-console-3.0.6.jar`. However, there is a comment "Command `'html2text {}'` failed with exit code 1. (No output)", "Archive contents identical but files differ, possibly due to different compression levels. Falling back to binary comparison." The diff between the jars is also in the zip file. I am using diffoscope 288.


However, when I extract the jars manually and compare using `diffoscope a b`, I get


  1.  Difference in `stat` output. Because I unzipped at different times.
  2.  The difference in `org/apache/syncope/client/console/pages/BasePage.html` accompanied by the same comment.
```
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ -        <strong>Copyright © 2010-2023
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ +        <strong>Copyright © 2010-2025
```

This is clearer because I now know at least which file differs. Maybe there is a bug that diffoscope does not show this when I directly want to compare jar file?

> please note that running the same command using `docker`: `docker run -w /mnt -v $(realpath .):/mnt --mount type=bind,source="$(realpath a )",target=/mnt/ref --mount type=bind,source="$(realpath b)",target=/mnt/reb registry.salsa.debian.org/reproducible-builds/diffoscope:latest  /mnt/ref /mnt/reb` throws an exception as it cannot find html2text.


Regards,
Aman Sharma

PhD Student
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS)
Department of Theoretical Computer Science (TCS)
<http://www.kth.se><https://www.kth.se/profile/amansha><https://www.kth.se/profile/amansha>
<https://www.kth.se/profile/amansha>https://algomaster99.github.io/
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