Re: Currency of packages
Hi Jenny W,
Please set your mailer to wrap long lines at about 70 characters.
On Thu, May 31, 2001 at 09:44:46AM -0700, jennyw wrote:
> I started using Debian because folks suggested it was easy to
> maintain (e.g. apt-get). I really like apt -- it certainly makes
> installing and downloading things a lot easier than other
> distributions. However ... I'm not (yet) a heavy Linux user, and I
> find that a lot of times I want software that's more recent than the
> stuff in the packages. This usually means that I end up downloading
> stuff and compiling new software.
> How do other people deal with this? Do you install the new software
> you need manually and then when the package gets released install it
> again with apt-get (probably not practical for frequently updated
> software)? Do you just use apt-get by default and download and
> compile when you need to (and then never use apt for those
> packages)?
I put deb-src lines to unstable in my sources.list:
10:02 $ grep ^deb-src /etc/apt/sources.list | grep -v cdrom
deb-src ftp://ftp-linux.cc.gatech.edu/pub/linux/distributions/debian unstable main contrib non-free
deb-src http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US unstable/non-US main contrib non-free
and, if there's a newer version in sid that hasn't made it to potato
yet, I can do
user$ apt-get -b source package
[get coffee here]
root# dpkg --install package_version.deb
Much easier than getting tarballs off the net, and you have all the
advantages of the dpkg system.
> Also, I'm currently using potato because it's labeled as
> stable. Would I be making a bad mistake by moving to Woody to get
> some of the more recent stuff? What about mixing stable and
> testing/unstable distributions? Is this generally unwise?
I get really sad when my computer gets b0rked, so I run stable. If
the risk of occasional breakages doesn't bother you (and I hear
they're pretty rare), run testing.
> It just seems like it's hard to use Debian without downloading
> stuff. Some of the software I'm installing seems like it would be
> pretty common:
>
> Cyrus IMAP (2.x -- current version is 1.5.19; there
> is no later version in testing or unstable)
Then you should file a "new upstream version available" bug, if
there's not one already.
> Postfix (20010228 or
> higher -- current version is 19991231; there is a later version in
> testing)
Then you can apt-get -b source as described, or just grab the newer
.deb from http://packages.debian.org/postfix . Unstable seems to have
20010502.
> I'd like to hear how Debian old-timers work with this. Thanks! Jen
Hope this helps.
Rob
--
It is contrary to reasoning to say that there is a vacuum or space in
which there is absolutely nothing.
-- Descartes
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