Subject: debootstrap: aid reproducible boostrapping by providing a --cleanup-logs option

From: Holger Levsen <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2022 17:36:34 +0200

Package: debootstrap
Version: 1.0.127
Severity: wishlist
X-Debbugs-Cc: [email-masked]

Dear Maintainer,

using debootstrap 1.0.127 it's possible to reproducible bootstrap Debian,
provided one does three extra steps:

1. rm /var/log/dpkg.log /var/log/alternatives.log /var/log/bootstrap.log
2. rm /etc/machine-id /var/cache/ldconfig/aux-cache
3. SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=$some_sane_value ; sudo tar --mtime="@$SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH" --clamp-mtime $SUITE -cf $SUITE.tar

This bug is about the first step. It would be really nice if debootstrap
had an option called --cleanup-logs which would delete those logs.

Step 2 (or rather it's first part) is tracked via #1018740: "debootstrap:
better initialisation of /etc/machine-id".
Step 3 would be another new feature for debootstrap, namely to create tar archives.

Thanks for maintaining debootstrap!

-- 
cheers,
	Holger

 ⢀⣴⠾⠻⢶⣦⠀
 ⣾⠁⢠⠒⠀⣿⡁  holger@(debian|reproducible-builds|layer-acht).org
 ⢿⡄⠘⠷⠚⠋⠀  OpenPGP: B8BF54137B09D35CF026FE9D 091AB856069AAA1C
 ⠈⠳⣄

"I know what you're thinking" used to be an idiom but now it's a business model.