> Anno domini 2019 Fri, 8 Mar 10:45:04 -0600

> Nate Bargmann scripsit:

>> * On 2019 08 Mar 08:00 -0600, KatolaZ wrote:

>>> and, IIRC, also /var/lib/dbus/machine-id is re-generated at boot
>>> time. But we need to double-check.

>> Not on this Debian Buster machine. Both /var/lib/dbus/machine-id and
>> /etc/machine-id have a date/time consistent with the initial system
>> installation back in October. The machine has been rebooted a number of
>> times since. I've not tried moving either and seeing what happens on
>> the next system restart.

> Hm ... same here:

> nik@t61:~$ ll /var/lib/dbus/machine-id
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 33 Sep 15 2015 /var/lib/dbus/machine-id
> nik@t61:~$ ll /etc/machine-id
> -r--r--r-- 1 root root 33 Sep 15 2015 /etc/machine-id
> nik@t61:~$

> 2015 ... that was jessie, when this computer was set up ...

I have it here on my Gentoo install - and /var/lib/dbus/machine-id is a
symlink to it. It's basically the same length as a MD5SUM - why not just
standardize on the MD5SUM of an empty 0-byte file (
d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e ) and tell them to take a running leap
from the ISS?