How to maintain backports? (mysql4/php4.2.3 for the curious)

[Fraser Campbell <fraser@wehave.net>]

Hi,

I am curious about the best way to make and maintain backports from unstable 
to stable.  I have managed to build php 4.2.3 and mysql 4.0.12 from unstable 
in woody and they seem to work (brief testing).  Here is what I did:

- added debian unstable sources to my sources.list
- apt-get source php4 mysql-dfsg
- edit debian/control a bit to redefine build dependencies to software that's
  actually available on woody (i.e libpng-dev instead of libpng3-dev)
- build packages with "dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot"

While I did get software that appears functional I am not confident that I 
won't find bugs down the road since I don't understand the impact of building 
with different libraries.  Here are some of the build dependencies that I had 
to change:

- build depend on libc-client2001-dev instead of libc-client2003debian-dev
- build depend on libtool instead of libtool (>= 1.4.2-7)
- build depend on libgd2-dev instead of libgd-xpm-dev
- build depend on libcurl-dev instead of libcurl2-dev

I understand that I could have tried to backport the newer build dependencies 
as well but I was afraid of things growing into a neverending spiral.

Are there any howtos, or general guidelines, available on performing backports 
such as these?  Is it bad etiquette to email the package maintainer for 
advice?  Is this list the best place for these questions?

My preference would be to stick with php 4.1.2 and mysql 3.23.49 for all of my 
servers but many customers are already demanding the features available in 
the newer software and I don't want to turn them away.

Thanks,
-- 
Fraser Campbell <fraser@wehave.net>                 http://www.wehave.net/
Brampton, Ontario, Canada                                 Debian GNU/Linux