Question about mkfs.erofs and reproducible builds

Question about mkfs.erofs and reproducible builds

[Todor Ivanov]

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        Hello,

        We are trying to replace squashfs with erofs and face an issue with
reproducing the build from one and the same source folder. The source
folder is "/etc" actually taken from an offline ubuntu 20.04 image and
mounted as read-only.
        I managed to narrow down the scope and it turns out that the issue
is when you have a file starting with "." (dot) in this folder. I.e.:

etc/.anyfilename

If I remove this file the erofs image of "etc" is reproducible (-T and -U
are used as well)

The issue is somehow related to the other 76 subfolders of etc and this
file starting with dot. For example if I create such .anyfilename in usr or
var, there is no issue. Also if I create this file under
etc/xdg/.anyfilename, this is fine as well.
I also tried with etc from debian10 and the result is the same. Removing
any file that starts with dot directly under etc, makes the erofs build
reproducible.
Do you have any advice on this?

Regards,
Todor

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Re: Question about mkfs.erofs and reproducible builds

[Gao Xiang]

Hi Todor,

On Wed, Oct 27, 2021 at 02:11:24PM +0300, Todor Ivanov wrote:
>         Hello,
> 
>         We are trying to replace squashfs with erofs and face an issue with
> reproducing the build from one and the same source folder. The source
> folder is "/etc" actually taken from an offline ubuntu 20.04 image and
> mounted as read-only.
>         I managed to narrow down the scope and it turns out that the issue
> is when you have a file starting with "." (dot) in this folder. I.e.:
> 
> etc/.anyfilename
> 
> If I remove this file the erofs image of "etc" is reproducible (-T and -U
> are used as well)
> 
> The issue is somehow related to the other 76 subfolders of etc and this
> file starting with dot. For example if I create such .anyfilename in usr or
> var, there is no issue. Also if I create this file under
> etc/xdg/.anyfilename, this is fine as well.
> I also tried with etc from debian10 and the result is the same. Removing
> any file that starts with dot directly under etc, makes the erofs build
> reproducible.
> Do you have any advice on this?

In principle filenames starting with '.' won't impact anything about
reproducible builds...

Let me investigate it now... But may I ask which erofs-utils version
is used? Does it still happen on the latest dev branch?

Thanks,
Gao Xiang

> 
> Regards,
> Todor

Re: Question about mkfs.erofs and reproducible builds

[Todor Ivanov]

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    Hi, Gao,

    This is how I installed mkfs.erofs on debian10:

apt-get install pkg-config liblz4-dev gawk
wget
http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/e/erofs-utils/erofs-utils_1.3.orig.tar.gz
tar xvzpf erofs-utils_1.3.orig.tar.gz
cd erofs-utils-1.3/
./autogen.sh
./configure
make
make install

Can you tell me where do I clone it from and if build instructions are
different?

Kind regards,
Todor

On Wed, Oct 27, 2021 at 2:27 PM Gao Xiang <hsiangkao@linux.alibaba.com>
wrote:

> Hi Todor,
>
> On Wed, Oct 27, 2021 at 02:11:24PM +0300, Todor Ivanov wrote:
> >         Hello,
> >
> >         We are trying to replace squashfs with erofs and face an issue
> with
> > reproducing the build from one and the same source folder. The source
> > folder is "/etc" actually taken from an offline ubuntu 20.04 image and
> > mounted as read-only.
> >         I managed to narrow down the scope and it turns out that the
> issue
> > is when you have a file starting with "." (dot) in this folder. I.e.:
> >
> > etc/.anyfilename
> >
> > If I remove this file the erofs image of "etc" is reproducible (-T and -U
> > are used as well)
> >
> > The issue is somehow related to the other 76 subfolders of etc and this
> > file starting with dot. For example if I create such .anyfilename in usr
> or
> > var, there is no issue. Also if I create this file under
> > etc/xdg/.anyfilename, this is fine as well.
> > I also tried with etc from debian10 and the result is the same. Removing
> > any file that starts with dot directly under etc, makes the erofs build
> > reproducible.
> > Do you have any advice on this?
>
> In principle filenames starting with '.' won't impact anything about
> reproducible builds...
>
> Let me investigate it now... But may I ask which erofs-utils version
> is used? Does it still happen on the latest dev branch?
>
> Thanks,
> Gao Xiang
>
> >
> > Regards,
> > Todor
>

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Re: Question about mkfs.erofs and reproducible builds

[Gao Xiang]

On Wed, Oct 27, 2021 at 02:41:54PM +0300, Todor Ivanov wrote:
>     Hi, Gao,
> 
>     This is how I installed mkfs.erofs on debian10:
> 
> apt-get install pkg-config liblz4-dev gawk
> wget
> http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/e/erofs-utils/erofs-utils_1.3.orig.tar.gz
> tar xvzpf erofs-utils_1.3.orig.tar.gz
> cd erofs-utils-1.3/
> ./autogen.sh
> ./configure
> make
> make install
> 
> Can you tell me where do I clone it from and if build instructions are
> different?

You could get the latest dev branch from:
git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/xiang/erofs-utils.git -b dev

We fixed some reproducable build issues recently, I think it might
be related to
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/xiang/erofs-utils.git/commit/?id=6324fac820c28c6a946f595fa58a0abba0f48eb4

Thanks,
Gao Xiang

> 
> Kind regards,
> Todor
> 
> On Wed, Oct 27, 2021 at 2:27 PM Gao Xiang <hsiangkao@linux.alibaba.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > Hi Todor,
> >
> > On Wed, Oct 27, 2021 at 02:11:24PM +0300, Todor Ivanov wrote:
> > >         Hello,
> > >
> > >         We are trying to replace squashfs with erofs and face an issue
> > with
> > > reproducing the build from one and the same source folder. The source
> > > folder is "/etc" actually taken from an offline ubuntu 20.04 image and
> > > mounted as read-only.
> > >         I managed to narrow down the scope and it turns out that the
> > issue
> > > is when you have a file starting with "." (dot) in this folder. I.e.:
> > >
> > > etc/.anyfilename
> > >
> > > If I remove this file the erofs image of "etc" is reproducible (-T and -U
> > > are used as well)
> > >
> > > The issue is somehow related to the other 76 subfolders of etc and this
> > > file starting with dot. For example if I create such .anyfilename in usr
> > or
> > > var, there is no issue. Also if I create this file under
> > > etc/xdg/.anyfilename, this is fine as well.
> > > I also tried with etc from debian10 and the result is the same. Removing
> > > any file that starts with dot directly under etc, makes the erofs build
> > > reproducible.
> > > Do you have any advice on this?
> >
> > In principle filenames starting with '.' won't impact anything about
> > reproducible builds...
> >
> > Let me investigate it now... But may I ask which erofs-utils version
> > is used? Does it still happen on the latest dev branch?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Gao Xiang
> >
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > > Todor
> >

Re: Question about mkfs.erofs and reproducible builds

[Todor Ivanov]

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   Hi, Gao,

   Indeed c_version:[1.3-g9fe440d0], seems to fix the problem :) Thank you
very much for the prompt and accurate feedback! Do you think we can use the
dev branch for our images or is it better until it is merged into master?
What do you think?

Kind regards,
Todor


On Wed, Oct 27, 2021 at 2:51 PM Gao Xiang <hsiangkao@linux.alibaba.com>
wrote:

> On Wed, Oct 27, 2021 at 02:41:54PM +0300, Todor Ivanov wrote:
> >     Hi, Gao,
> >
> >     This is how I installed mkfs.erofs on debian10:
> >
> > apt-get install pkg-config liblz4-dev gawk
> > wget
> >
> http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/e/erofs-utils/erofs-utils_1.3.orig.tar.gz
> > tar xvzpf erofs-utils_1.3.orig.tar.gz
> > cd erofs-utils-1.3/
> > ./autogen.sh
> > ./configure
> > make
> > make install
> >
> > Can you tell me where do I clone it from and if build instructions are
> > different?
>
> You could get the latest dev branch from:
> git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/xiang/erofs-utils.git -b dev
>
> We fixed some reproducable build issues recently, I think it might
> be related to
>
> https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/xiang/erofs-utils.git/commit/?id=6324fac820c28c6a946f595fa58a0abba0f48eb4
>
> Thanks,
> Gao Xiang
>
> >
> > Kind regards,
> > Todor
> >
> > On Wed, Oct 27, 2021 at 2:27 PM Gao Xiang <hsiangkao@linux.alibaba.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Hi Todor,
> > >
> > > On Wed, Oct 27, 2021 at 02:11:24PM +0300, Todor Ivanov wrote:
> > > >         Hello,
> > > >
> > > >         We are trying to replace squashfs with erofs and face an
> issue
> > > with
> > > > reproducing the build from one and the same source folder. The source
> > > > folder is "/etc" actually taken from an offline ubuntu 20.04 image
> and
> > > > mounted as read-only.
> > > >         I managed to narrow down the scope and it turns out that the
> > > issue
> > > > is when you have a file starting with "." (dot) in this folder. I.e.:
> > > >
> > > > etc/.anyfilename
> > > >
> > > > If I remove this file the erofs image of "etc" is reproducible (-T
> and -U
> > > > are used as well)
> > > >
> > > > The issue is somehow related to the other 76 subfolders of etc and
> this
> > > > file starting with dot. For example if I create such .anyfilename in
> usr
> > > or
> > > > var, there is no issue. Also if I create this file under
> > > > etc/xdg/.anyfilename, this is fine as well.
> > > > I also tried with etc from debian10 and the result is the same.
> Removing
> > > > any file that starts with dot directly under etc, makes the erofs
> build
> > > > reproducible.
> > > > Do you have any advice on this?
> > >
> > > In principle filenames starting with '.' won't impact anything about
> > > reproducible builds...
> > >
> > > Let me investigate it now... But may I ask which erofs-utils version
> > > is used? Does it still happen on the latest dev branch?
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Gao Xiang
> > >
> > > >
> > > > Regards,
> > > > Todor
> > >
>

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Re: Question about mkfs.erofs and reproducible builds

[Gao Xiang]

On Wed, Oct 27, 2021 at 04:40:28PM +0300, Todor Ivanov wrote:
>    Hi, Gao,
> 
>    Indeed c_version:[1.3-g9fe440d0], seems to fix the problem :) Thank you
> very much for the prompt and accurate feedback! Do you think we can use the
> dev branch for our images or is it better until it is merged into master?
> What do you think?

Many thanks for your feedback too in time! ;)
I'm fine to fast-forward the main branch without bumping up the version
(since other folks also needed that as well...)

But I'd like to postpone new erofs-utils v1.4 for a while since I'm
waiting for merging some other on-going features too~

Thanks,
Gao Xiang

> 
> Kind regards,
> Todor
> 
> 
> On Wed, Oct 27, 2021 at 2:51 PM Gao Xiang <hsiangkao@linux.alibaba.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > On Wed, Oct 27, 2021 at 02:41:54PM +0300, Todor Ivanov wrote:
> > >     Hi, Gao,
> > >
> > >     This is how I installed mkfs.erofs on debian10:
> > >
> > > apt-get install pkg-config liblz4-dev gawk
> > > wget
> > >
> > http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/e/erofs-utils/erofs-utils_1.3.orig.tar.gz
> > > tar xvzpf erofs-utils_1.3.orig.tar.gz
> > > cd erofs-utils-1.3/
> > > ./autogen.sh
> > > ./configure
> > > make
> > > make install
> > >
> > > Can you tell me where do I clone it from and if build instructions are
> > > different?
> >
> > You could get the latest dev branch from:
> > git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/xiang/erofs-utils.git -b dev
> >
> > We fixed some reproducable build issues recently, I think it might
> > be related to
> >
> > https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/xiang/erofs-utils.git/commit/?id=6324fac820c28c6a946f595fa58a0abba0f48eb4
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Gao Xiang
> >
> > >
> > > Kind regards,
> > > Todor
> > >
> > > On Wed, Oct 27, 2021 at 2:27 PM Gao Xiang <hsiangkao@linux.alibaba.com>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > Hi Todor,
> > > >
> > > > On Wed, Oct 27, 2021 at 02:11:24PM +0300, Todor Ivanov wrote:
> > > > >         Hello,
> > > > >
> > > > >         We are trying to replace squashfs with erofs and face an
> > issue
> > > > with
> > > > > reproducing the build from one and the same source folder. The source
> > > > > folder is "/etc" actually taken from an offline ubuntu 20.04 image
> > and
> > > > > mounted as read-only.
> > > > >         I managed to narrow down the scope and it turns out that the
> > > > issue
> > > > > is when you have a file starting with "." (dot) in this folder. I.e.:
> > > > >
> > > > > etc/.anyfilename
> > > > >
> > > > > If I remove this file the erofs image of "etc" is reproducible (-T
> > and -U
> > > > > are used as well)
> > > > >
> > > > > The issue is somehow related to the other 76 subfolders of etc and
> > this
> > > > > file starting with dot. For example if I create such .anyfilename in
> > usr
> > > > or
> > > > > var, there is no issue. Also if I create this file under
> > > > > etc/xdg/.anyfilename, this is fine as well.
> > > > > I also tried with etc from debian10 and the result is the same.
> > Removing
> > > > > any file that starts with dot directly under etc, makes the erofs
> > build
> > > > > reproducible.
> > > > > Do you have any advice on this?
> > > >
> > > > In principle filenames starting with '.' won't impact anything about
> > > > reproducible builds...
> > > >
> > > > Let me investigate it now... But may I ask which erofs-utils version
> > > > is used? Does it still happen on the latest dev branch?
> > > >
> > > > Thanks,
> > > > Gao Xiang
> > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Regards,
> > > > > Todor
> > > >
> >