[SeaBIOS] [PATCH] build: remove hardcoded timestamp

[Kevin O'Connor]

On Tue, Feb 03, 2015 at 06:31:46PM +0100, Peter Stuge wrote:
> Kevin O'Connor wrote:
> > > Once this patch is applied it is possible to get reproducible builds of
> > > Xens hvmloader.
> > 
> > I've found the version information to be quite helpful when we get
> > trouble reports - it helps indicate what was being run and who built
> > the code (eg, distribution or local).  During development cycles, it
> > helps verify that test runs are executed with the expected code.
> > 
> > What breaks if the version changes?
> 
> Reproducible builds; allowing to create a consensus that a particular
> binary is indeed the correct binary for a particular source code.

That is useful.  A solution for stabilizing gcc/binutils output would
also need to be found though, and that's a much harder problem.

> > It should be possible to force a static version with "make
> > VERSION='xyz'", but I'd ask that that not be done for production
> > builds as it makes handling trouble reports harder.
> 
> I would recommend to use `git describe --tags --dirty` output, which
> tells if there are any local modifications.

"git describe" is already there - see my recent email to Ian.

-Kevin