[U-Boot] [PATCH][RFC] Update U-Boot's build timestamp on every compile

[Stefan Roese]

On Tuesday 21 October 2008, Peter Tyser wrote:
> > Why would that be confusing? It seems natural to me that time changes
> > when  you  do  several  things  sequentially.   If   a   board   used
> > __TIME__/__DATE__   in   more  than  one  location,  then  the  board
> > maintainer either did this intentionally (and thus wants to  acchieve
> > this  result),  or  he  did  it without thinking, in which case it is
> > obviously not an important issue to him).
>
> I agree that its not an important issue, but that's not to say it
> hasn't/won't confused customers/developers.  eg the first time I noticed
> it, it fooled me into thinking my flash wasn't properly programmed after
> updating u-boot.

Happend to me a few times as well. So I like your patch.

> > > the build time were printed in common/lcd.c, it would not be identical
> > > to the time printed on the serial port since lcd.c was not compiled at
> > > the same time as cpu/mpc8xx/start.S.
> >
> > If you care about reliable version information, use the git based ID
> > strings.
>
> I use git, but its version strings only change when commits occur.  I
> think having an accurate build time stamp would be a nice feature.
> FWIW, Linux handles this "issue" very similarly to my proposed solution
> so that it can have its pretty banner.  It even takes it a step further
> and gives a specific compile number (#15):
>
> Linux version 2.6.23.17 (ptyser at ptyser) (gcc version 4.3.1
> (crosstool-NG-xes) ) #15 SMP Wed Aug 6 11:45:55 CDT 2008
>
>
> I know this patch isn't a big deal, but I think it would be a valuable
> change.  If others don't agree I'll drop the issue.

As mentioned above, I think your patch is an improvement. So why not accept 
it?

Acked-by: Stefan Roese <sr at denx.de>

Best regards,
Stefan

=====================================================================
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,     MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: +49-8142-66989-0 Fax: +49-8142-66989-80  Email: office at denx.de
=====================================================================