[Cialug] Alien inconsistent output

[Andrew Denner]

I suspect that you are correct, compression can do odd things.

On Wed, May 13, 2020, 7:45 PM Jeff Chapin <chapinjeff at gmail.com> wrote:

> I would suspect that there is something about the metadata that is causing
> this -- like a build date or something -- and it happens to push the
> resulting files over or under a cutoff point, and things get rounded up.
>
> a .deb is just some tarballs in an wrapping archive format -- you could
> unpack the various .deb files in to dir1, dir2, and dir3, and then use diff
> -r to see what is different.
>
> On Wed, May 13, 2020 at 6:34 PM jim kraai <jimgkraai at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > as computer scientists, we're taught that computers are deterministic
> >
> > once you experience the nondeterminism, you're ready for the next step
> >
> > red pill or blue?
> >
> > On Wed, May 13, 2020, 16:13 Daniel A. Ramaley <daniel.ramaley at drake.edu>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Running into a really weird problem.
> > >
> > > I'm trying to use alien to convert an RPM to a DEB. I ran it 3 times on
> > > the input package. Each time it gave different output! On a 46 MB
> > > package the output only varied by about 8 kB. So it's not a huge
> > > variance. But i would expect that if i have a program that transforms
> > > data, and i give it the exact same data, it should give the exact same
> > > result. Right? Is there something wrong? Or something i am not
> > > understanding?
> > >
> > > It's extra annoying because in certain circles the word "alien" seems
> to
> > > mean something else so when i search for alien size differences i get
> > > all sorts of conspiracy-theory and sci-fi style sites talking about
> > > fantastical creatures.
> > >
> > > __
> > > Daniel Ramaley
> > > Server Engineer 2, Information Technology Services
> > > Drake University
> > >
> > > T: +1-515-271-4540
> > > W: https://www.drake.edu/its
> > > _______________________________________________
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>
>
> --
> Jeff Chapin
> President, CedarLug, retired
> President, UNIPC, "I'll get around to it"
> President, UNI Scuba Club
> Senator, NISG, retired
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