[rb-general] Heading toward functional compilation by adding hidden inputs?

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hello,

John Gilmore <gnu at toad.com> skribis:

> The reproducible-builds team is trying to evolve compilation to become
> more like a mathematical function -- having defined inputs and
> outputs, and always returning the same output from the same inputs.

FWIW, this is the exact approach taken by Nix and now Guix, the
functional package managers: build processes are modeled as pure
functions, and we arrange for the technicalities to closely match the
model (builds run in containers, outputs are immutable, etc.).

I think there’s convergence between this and the work done by Debian and
other “imperative” distros in the context of reproducible builds.

> Removing hidden inputs like the date, the local directory name, the
> host system type, etc.

It turns out that date is the hardest “hidden input” to address.  :-)

Thanks for sharing your experience, I agree with Holger that it’s
insightful.

Ludo’.