Continuous integration: SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH and testing

[David A. Wheeler]

> On Jan 9, 2025, at 8:52 AM, Arnout Engelen <arnout at bzzt.net> wrote:
> 
> On Thu, Jan 9, 2025, at 02:28, James Addison via rb-general wrote:
>> are there any
>> recommendations about whether SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH must-not / can /
>> should / must be configured during (immediate and/or later) testing of
>> software that has been built reproducibly?  And if so, for what
>> reason(s)?

At least some testing should be done WITH the SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH set.
You generally want your testing before release to be as similar as possible to the
production environment, because every difference can hide a bug.
That ideal is typically not *fully* realized, but it's worth shooting for.

--- David A. Wheeler