Question

For the purposes of binary / source code verification, i d like to be able to make two compiles on the same computer 2 weeks apart and have the binaries be identical and thus pass some checksum test.

So far I ve found that most likely the timestamp will be written by the compiler into the binary. I can work around this by doing the compare on the dumpbin /rawdata results per this msdn article.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/164151

However the dumpbin results still differ in a about a dozen places and the difference still appears to be some kind of timestamp (changing from A1 73 to C4 76) for example.

I assume this is the timestamp that the delphi compiler is putting into the code/data sections but i can t find where this is happening or how to turn it off. Fiddling with the various compiler/linker options has not changed this behavior.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

We researched this question a few years ago, and as I recall the answer was simply that the people at Borland/Codegear/Embarcadero do not subscribe to the notion that the compiler should produce exactly the same output given exactly the same input (given that the current date-time is not acceptable to consider as input).

This is disappointing, but given that Delphi is upmteen major versions old, it probably will not change.

Answer 2

Based on your comment in the question, I think you are searching for the answer to this question:

How can I verify that a certain binary is created by a certain set of source files

One way is to have an automated built process that:

Inserts a unique verififcation tag in the source code (might be as simple as a GUID string or something else in an include file)
Compiles the binaries using that verification tag
Packs the resulting binary and source code in a delivery directory tree

You must make sure that your sourcecode actually uses that verification tag (for instance by showing in an about box, or something similar).

I use FinalBuilder to automate build processes like this.

--jeroen

Answer 3

Unfortunately I haven t heard of any answer to this problem.

It s not just timestamps but there are places where a few bytes of random garbage out of memory ends up in the result.

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