Mixing binary installation with installation from source code
I am relatively new to Linux, so please forgive me if I am asking a stupid
question. I am wondering how Debian's installation system (apt) handles
situations where you go back and forth from installation from a binary .deb
distribution and installing from a tarball source distribution.
I have a particular situation in mind. I've got various packages installed
for GNOME via apt from network sources. Now I would like to compile GNOME
1.0.40 beta, so I can help test the beta. GNOME 1.0.40 is currently only
available as tar files of source code. If I compile and install from a tar
distribution and overwrite the apt installation, does apt's database of
installed software become invalid (i.e. apt thinks version x.y.z is
installed when in reality version x.y.z+34 is installed? If I later want to
install GNOME from a distribution of .deb files, am I looking for trouble?
In general, is there a safe way to install version x.y from .deb followed by
x.y+1 from source distribution followed by x.y+2 from .deb followed by ...?
Does apt automagically do the right thing, or do I as administrator have to
do the right thing?
Tom
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