jcb> Could the right answer be to limit the effect of
SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH to timestamps that will appear in built files?
I'm afraid I'm not sure what you mean, Jacob.
At any rate, before flailing around further, I'd like to understand why
the Debian build had problems with the original mdate-sh that did
nothing with SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH. Santiago? Please? This is following up
on the change I made to mdate-sh following your (indirect) report at
https://bugs.gnu.org/77805.
Making mdate-sh aware of S_D_E caused problems (info files getting
rebuild) with the RH build, per Frederic's report at
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake/2025-06/msg00016.html.
Also, I'd like to hear confirmation from Frederic that my guess is
correct, or not, as to why the S_D_E-enabled mdate-sh caused makeinfo
reruns.
In other words, to understand what's really going on :). --thanks, karl.
