debconf cache is non-reproducible issue while creating system image

[Roland Clobus]

Hello Venkata,

On 26/04/2022 08:28, Venkata.Pyla at toshiba-tsip.com wrote:
> Hi RB team,
> 
> I am working on to create reproducible system images that includes Debian packages,
> I am currently facing one issue[1] where the debconf cache entries are not reproducible when package configurations are done before the package is installed,
> This is happening because the package postinst script uses non-reproducible file names to generate debconf cache entries.
> 
> I found this problem with one package (localepurge), but there can be many packages like this where their package postinst script uses non-reproducible contents while generating debconf cache entries.
> 
> I wanted to discuss here whether we need to fix this issue in 'ucf' who is responsible to generate the debconf cache entry, or every package should fix this problem in their postinst script?
> 
> Kindly give your thoughts.
> 
> [1] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1009639

In the specific case of localepurge, instead of using the file 
/etc/locale.nopurge, you could use /etc/locale.gen instead. [1]

I used:
debootstrap bullseye rootfs/ http://deb.debian.org/debian/
chroot rootfs /bin/bash -c "echo en > /etc/locale.gen"
chroot rootfs /bin/bash -c "DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt --yes 
install localepurge"
grep tmp rootfs/var/cache/debconf/config.dat

(I've added some settings to make the step run without user interaction)

With kind regards,
Roland Clobus


[1] 
https://salsa.debian.org/elmig-guest/localepurge/-/blob/master/debian/localepurge.config
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: OpenPGP_signature
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 833 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <http://lists.reproducible-builds.org/pipermail/rb-general/attachments/20220426/b98e73c3/attachment.sig>