compile vs. apt-get (dpkg)

[Bulent Murtezaoglu <bm@acm.org>]

[...]
    GS> I undestand, that I loose all apt functionality, when starting
    GS> to compile my own source.  What way is the best to deal with a
    GS> situation like this ???

"Best" depends on your circumstances.  If you are willing to invest
the time, the best way is making your own .deb, bumping the version 
by an NN: prefix (or by some other method that I don't know) and using
that.  The advantages are numerous: you can install it on other boxes,
you can remove it painlessly, .deb's that need http servers will still
install (since your apache package is providing it) without override
switches.  If you change the version number properly, apt-get will
leave your package when the apache in the real distribution is
updated.

I have had to do this once for squid a while ago.  The documentation 
(check the doc portion of the web site) was not great, but starting 
with an already packaged program makes things easy.  Things may have 
improved since then.

cheers,

BM