The concept of reproducible builds has gotten a lot of traction in recent years. The general idea is that compiling the same code (input) should always produce the same output; this helps with software auditability.
Timestamps embedded in executables go against this idea. A standardized convention is to use the SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH environment variable. Compatible tools should check if this variable is set and, if it is, use that instead of the real wall clock time when generating any timestamps.
The concept of reproducible builds has gotten a lot of traction in recent years. The general idea is that compiling the same code (input) should always produce the same output; this helps with software auditability.
Timestamps embedded in executables go against this idea. A standardized convention is to use the
SOURCE_DATE_EPOCHenvironment variable. Compatible tools should check if this variable is set and, if it is, use that instead of the real wall clock time when generating any timestamps.