Name: Drew Noel
Contact/Email/IRC nick: drewmnoel@gmail.com
Background: I've been passionate about programming and systems administration for years. I enjoy tinkering with code and building the latest unstable software myself.
Project title: Reproducible builds for Debian and free software
Project details: A high amount of trust is placed in the builds produced by Debian. In order to assure that the built packages are as-intended (and without mistake or modification), Debian tracks the reproducibility (or lack thereof) of packages it offers. There are still many packages which cannot be verified, for one reason or another.
Synopsis: There's a large number of packages in Debian unstable which are not reproducible. Many of these are due to embedded timestamps in the source code or generated archives. Removing these would allow these builds to be determined to be reproducible.
Benefits to Debian: Reproducible builds are very important to prove the chain of trust from the application developers all the way to the compiled binaries.
Deliverables: A tool which complements existing tools such as strip-nondeterminism, which allows for automatic stripping of embedded timestamps.
Project schedule: The project will take the summer months between May and August. For more details, please see my final proposal.
Exams and other commitments: None
Other summer plans: I work small part-time (typically less than 20 hours per week) as an independent contractor for backend web development.
Why Debian?: Debian is a great distribution and is used massively in the field. It would be very fulfilling to give back to the distribution which runs my own personal servers as well!
My previous Debian contributions: N/A
Are you applying for other projects in SoC? Yes, 3 others: JPF, Nmap, and FreeBSD
