Let's talk about Reproducible Builds

	Starts	Organizer
	Thu 03 Dec 2015 19:00	Everyoooooneee!!!!!!!111
	Ends	Event Owner
	Thu 03 Dec 2015 23:59	User:Kargig

Reproducible Builds rooock!

What is it about?

Reproducible builds are a set of software development practices which create a verifiable path from human readable source code to the binary code used by computers.

Why does it matter?

Most aspects of software verification are done on source code, as that is what humans can reasonably understand. But most of the time, computers require software to be first built into a long string of numbers to be used. With reproducible builds, multiple parties can redo this process independently and ensure they all get exactly the same result. We can thus gain confidence that a distributed binary code is indeed coming from a given source code.

What made the recent Volkswagen emissions scandal possible is software that has been designed to lie about its sensors in a lab environment. Having the source code under public scrutiny would have made adding such a misfeature only a little more difficult. Without reproducible builds, it is hard to confirm that the binary code installed in the car was actually made using the source code that has been verified.

Several free software projects already, or will soon, provide reproducible builds.

More

Learn more about reproducible builds at reproducible builds website