Reproducible Build for v2.5.4 failed

[IzzySoft]

Looks like the APK was NOT built from the commit the tag points to:

     XML ELEM START [lineno=2, name='manifest', #attributes=7]
-      ATTR: http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android:versionCode=420504022
+      ATTR: http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android:versionCode=420503003
       ATTR: http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android:versionName='2.5.4'

Unfortunately, the embedded META-INF/version-control-info.textproto simply states generate_error_reason: NO_SUPPORTED_VCS_FOUND (for our build as well, so I assume this is an AGP issue?) – which means we had to check all follow-up commits until we found 86aff1d – which adjust versionCode to the value your APK shows.

Please consider what we call the "first basic rule" in our hints for developers on reproducible builds:

Always build the APK from exactly the commit your release-tag will point to!

This helps us avoiding hours of digging to make RBs succeed again – and you to avoid having the shield turn yellow (signalling a failed RB) as we could not figure what you've built from). Like now, as building from the commit mentioned, doesn't make RB succeed either. Because while there versionCode is fixed, versionName is broken:

       ATTR: http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android:versionCode=420504022
-      ATTR: http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android:versionName='2.5.4'
+      ATTR: http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android:versionName='2.5.5'
       ATTR: http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android:compileSdkVersion=36

🤷‍♂️

Why aren't you using your Github action to build, if I may ask? That would guarantee clean builds from a commit that can be looked up when needed.

[IzzySoft]

OK, looking once more with fresh eyes, I succeededwith a reproducible build by manually overriding the (wrong) versionCode from latest-version.yaml. Please, do keep that in sync with what you really use, will saves us hours analyzing and fixing failed builds 🙈