On Sat, 10 Oct 2009 20:29:14 +0200
Ulrich Mueller <ulm@g.o> wrote:
> > Different Portage versions do different things with mtimes,
> 
> From bug 181021 I conclude that Portage preserves timestamps since
> version 2.1.2.10, and 2.1.2.11 went stable in August 2007. That's more
> than two years ago.

Which is well after the EAPI process started, and is thus covered by
the whole "no changes to behaviour on old EAPIs" thing.

It's also beside the point. EAPIs are about introducing new features,
so there's no reason we should go with whatever Portage happens to do
currently just because it's what Portage happens to do. Instead, we
should be going with "what's the best thing we can do when we
introduce this new feature?", and I have yet to see an explanation as to
why installing files with a 1 Jan 1970 timestamp is "the best thing we
can do".

-- 
Ciaran McCreesh