## page was renamed from ReproducibleBuilds/TimestampInDviGeneratedByLaTeX
LaTeX will write the current time when creating a `.dvi` file.

[[https://reproducible.debian.net/userContent/issues/timestamps_in_dvi_generated_by_latex_issue.html|Known affected packages]]

= Detection =

[[attachment:sgf2dg_4.026-10.debbindiff.html|Example debbindiff output]]

= Work-around =

None yet.

= Solution =

Here's a way to use the file modification time instead of the current date and time:

{{{
--- iproute2-3.16.0.orig/doc/Makefile
+++ iproute2-3.16.0/doc/Makefile
@@ -42,7 +42,10 @@ print: $(PSFILES)
 
 %.dvi: %.tex
        @set -e; pass=2; echo "Running LaTeX $<"; \
-       while [ `$(LATEX) $< </dev/null 2>&1 | \
+       minutes_since_midnight=$$(expr `date -u "+%H" -r $<` '*' 60 + `date -u "+%M" -r $<`); \
+       creation_time=$$(date -u "+\year=%Y\month=%m\day=%d\time=$$minutes_since_midnight" -r $<); \
+       echo "$$creation_time"; \
+       while [ `$(LATEX) "$$creation_time\input $<" </dev/null 2>&1 | \
                 grep -c '^\(LaTeX Warning: Label(s) may\|No file \|! Emergency stop\)'` -ge 1 ]; do \
                if [ $$pass -gt 3 ]; then \
                        echo "Seems, something is wrong. Try by hands." ; exit 1 ; \
}}}

It's not the best approach, the `.tex` file itself can be generated. But this shows how to set the timestamp.

=== Alternative ===

Another way is to prevent embedding the date completely. The date is written inside the DVI comment field, which can be set to any value or cleared with `latex --output-comment=""`