Re: implement a stable 'Last updated' in Documentation

From: Michael J Gruber <git@drmicha.warpmail.net>
Date: Jan 30, 2015, 10:05 UTC
Message-ID: <54CB5770.8030503@drmicha.warpmail.net>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqbnlif6t9.fsf@gitster.dls.corp.google.com>

Junio C Hamano schrieb am 29.01.2015 um 07:18:

Show 16 quoted lines

> Olaf Hering <olaf@aepfle.de> writes:
> 
>> On Tue, Jan 27, Junio C Hamano wrote:
>>
>>>> What file timestamp should be used for them? Likely "../version"?
>>>
>>> I tend to think the "Last updated" timestamp taken from the
>>> filesystem timestamp is a bad practice inherited by these tools from
>>> the days back when nobody used any revision control systems.
>>
>> I'm not sure. The bug is that such 'Last updated' line exists at all in
>> the default output. Noone asked for it, noone really needs it. And it
>> makes it impossible to get reproducible builds.
> 
> Amen to that ;-)
>

It's a shame one can't simply replace the [footer-text] template which asciidoc insists on.

It turns out asciidoc 8.6.9-3 and later will habe a knob to turn:

https://github.com/asciidoc/asciidoc/pull/9

I'll try and get my hands on it to see whether we can simply use that. I'm wondering though which is more useful - the version of the tree the doc is processed from, or the version of the last commit changing the corresponding doc source file. The first one changes even when the doc source is unchanged (but is stable between reruns, of course).

Michael