Building packages recursively, including newer versions of modules

[Andrew Beverley <andy@andybev.com>]

Hi guys,

I'm trying to build a Debian package for Dancer2. The plan is to use it
locally only, so that I can more easily deploy my Debian servers that
require that module. I'm using Wheezy, and realise that I could
potentially use packages from Jessie, but I wasn't sure the easiest way
to obtain the associated dependencies. Plus, I may still need to build
newer versions anyway.

I've been trying to use dh-make-perl to build the package. I've been
calling it with:

    cpan2deb --recursive Dancer2

This works to build the Dancer2 package itself, but I'm struggling with
the dependencies. The main problem is that using "recursive" builds only
those modules that don't have an existing package, whereas those modules
that are simply a version too old are not built.

I've been trying to hack the code, in particular
Debian::Control::FromCPAN, to make it check the version number, and mark
the module as missing if it's too old, but I'm struggling to make it
work properly.

I won't go into the full details of what I've tried just yet. Instead, I
thought it worth asking: what is the recommended way of doing this?

I.e. what is the recommended way of building/obtaining a particular
Debian package for a module of a particular version, along with all its
dependencies?

Thanks,

Andy