[Git][reproducible-builds/specs/source-date-epoch-spec][content] 6 commits: Change flaws to instructions

[Bernhard M. Wiedemann (@bmwiedemann-guest)]

Bernhard M. Wiedemann pushed to branch content at Reproducible Builds / specs / source-date-epoch-spec


Commits:
3f9d3c84 by Bernhard M. Wiedemann at 2026-09-23T20:02:50+02:00
Change flaws to instructions

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b3c3f2d1 by Robin Candau at 2026-09-24T14:46:57+02:00
Apply wording suggestion

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d1194e26 by Bernhard M. Wiedemann at 2026-10-16T15:17:42+02:00
Merge branch 'wording' into content

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92804344 by Bernhard M. Wiedemann at 2026-10-16T15:18:46+02:00
Adapt motivation section

We copied the current definition from the website,
capitalized R-B and
dropped some outdated sentences.

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f881d469 by Robin Candau at 2026-10-16T15:21:00+02:00
Slight restructuring to make more readable

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2504a502 by Robin Candau at 2026-10-16T15:21:14+02:00
General improvements of the advatanges list

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1 changed file:

- source-date-epoch-spec.xml


Changes:

=====================================
source-date-epoch-spec.xml
=====================================
@@ -57,40 +57,46 @@
 <sect1>
 	<title>Motivation</title>
 	<para>
+		Reproducible Builds are a set of software development practices that
+		create an independently-verifiable path from source to binary code.
 		Whilst anyone can inspect the source code of free software for
-		malicious flaws, most distributions provide binary (or
-		"compiled") packages to end users. The motivation behind
-		"reproducible" builds is to allow verification that no flaws
-		have been introduced during this compilation process by
+		malicious code, most distributions provide binary
+		packages to end users. The motivation behind
+		Reproducible Builds is to allow verification that no malicious changes
+		have been introduced during this build process by
 		promising identical binary packages are always generated from a
 		given source.
 	</para>
 	<para>
-		This protects against the installation of backdoor-introducing
-		malware on developers' machines as an attacker would need to
-		simultaneously infect all the developers attempting to
-		reproduce the build. In addition, a reproducible build has
+		Reproducible Builds help to protect against the installation of
+		malware on users' machines.
+	</para>
+	<para>
+		In addition, Reproducible Builds have
 		other technical advantages:
 	</para>
 	<itemizedlist>
 	<listitem><para>
-		Requires the removal of any non-deterministic and/or unsafe
-		behaviour, eg. connecting to the internet to download
-		build-dependencies or reading from uninitialised memory
+		Help debugging by the removal of any non-deterministic
+		behaviour introduced by the build process
 	</para></listitem>
 	<listitem><para>
-		Detects corrupted or outdated build environments
+		Detect corrupted or outdated build environments
 	</para></listitem>
 	<listitem><para>
-		Provides validation of packages built on foreign
-		architectures
+		Provide validation of packages built on foreign
+		architectures when cross-compiling
 	</para></listitem>
 	<listitem><para>
-		Reduces time-to-detection of a build host compromise
+		Reduce time-to-detection of a build host compromise
 	</para></listitem>
 	<listitem><para>
 		Can show that proposed changes have no impact on binaries
 	</para></listitem>
+	<listitem><para>
+		Other examples are available at <ulink
+			url="https://reproducible-builds.org/docs/why/">https://reproducible-builds.org/docs/why/</ulink>.
+	</para></listitem>
 	</itemizedlist>
 	<sect2>
 		<title>Build timestamps</title>



View it on GitLab: https://salsa.debian.org/reproducible-builds/specs/source-date-epoch-spec/-/compare/31933800123e3c2adc13bb249c360c1173012fc6...2504a502ae73fefc4ef0e305b64b02ba3e541d82

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