[tor-bugs] #16472 [Applications/Tor Browser]: Upgrade Binutils to 2.25+ for Tor Browser builds

[Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki]

#16472: Upgrade Binutils to 2.25+ for Tor Browser builds
-------------------------------------------------+-------------------------
 Reporter:  gk                                   |          Owner:  tbb-
                                                 |  team
     Type:  task                                 |         Status:
                                                 |  needs_information
 Priority:  Medium                               |      Milestone:
Component:  Applications/Tor Browser             |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal                               |     Resolution:
 Keywords:  tbb-rbm, boklm201802,                |  Actual Points:
  TorBrowserTeam201802R                          |
Parent ID:  #12968                               |         Points:
 Reviewer:                                       |        Sponsor:
-------------------------------------------------+-------------------------

Comment (by boklm):

 Replying to [comment:32 gk]:
 > Good stuff! I am a bit confused about why the upgrade to binutils 2.30
 suddenly needs all those `nsis` related build changes. I mean the
 hardening flags are not really changing just with the binutils update...
 So, what's up with that?

 The reason is that binutils 2.25 added this change:
 {{{
 * PE binaries now once again contain real timestamps by default.  To
 disable
   the inclusion of a timestamp in a PE binary, use the --no-insert-
 timestamp
   command line option.
 }}}

 So we need to add the `--no-insert-timestamp` flag to make the build
 reproducible, which was not necessary with binutils 2.24.

 Alternatively, we could patch `ld/emultempl/pe.em` and change this line to
 make it false by default:
 {{{
 static bfd_boolean insert_timestamp = TRUE;
 }}}

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/16472#comment:33>
Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki <https://trac.torproject.org/>
The Tor Project: anonymity online