_DATE__, version string, and distros

[Hal Murray]

esr at thyrsus.com said:
> Interesting idea.  But I don't see how it solves our problem unless we can
> count on every packager to set this variable.  Which ones do? 

I think we can do that without help from the packaging environment.  We can 
put our release date into a git controled file and use that as a default.

The one line python code would use that file or SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH if it is in 
the environment.

I can get my updated build date by having a script update that file.  I'll 
have to git checkout that file to undo those edits when I want to commit 
something.  I can live with that.

-- 
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