Reproducible or Deterministic Builds with Nuxt Content

[mhberger]

Hi There

First time user here.

We have just started using nuxt/content, wanting to generate content and deploy
as a static site served by a web server (e.g. apache, ngingx, caddy)

When we deploy content, we need to only deploy content that has actually
changed.

For example if there are no content changes and we run the build
npm run generate, we expect no changes to be shown in the underlying files.

If we fix a simple typo in a simple standalone markdown content file, then we
expect to only deploy changes related to that file.

In a nutshell we need a deterministic or reproducible build.

A deterministic/reproducible build is one where the same source code, built in
the same environment, will always result in the same output. This ensures that
the build process is consistent and reliable, allowing for verification that
the build was not tampered with. i.e. given the same inputs, the output will
always be the same.

Some reason we need this are

• Consistency: The build output does not change if the source code and build
  environment remain unchanged.

• Verification: It allows others to verify the build by comparing the output to
  a known good build.

• Security: It ensures that the build process has not been tampered with,
  providing confidence in the integrity of the build output. Why It Matters

• Debugging: Easier to debug issues since the build process is predictable.

• Distribution: Ensures that binaries distributed to users are exactly what the
  developers intended.

• Compliance: Important for compliance and security-sensitive applications.

Following the nuxt starting instructions
npx nuxi@latest init nuxt-my-app -t content,
and enabling .output/public as part of git repository[1], then
the steps below should show no changes after the second run

  npm run generate
  git add .
  npm run generate
  git status -u

I see there is a nuxt ticket that touches on this.
appManifest causing non-deterministic build

The question is are there any steps or instructions on how to achieve this
using nuxt/content?

[1] To enable .output/public as part of the git repository, update .gitignore to contain

!.output
.output/*
!.output/public