Re: How to maintain backports? (mysql4/php4.2.3 for the curious)
On Tue, 2003-04-08 at 16:46, Fraser Campbell wrote:
> 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.
I dont maintain any backports, but I have done this to software for
personal use. I think you should be fine. As long as the .configure
script run succesfully(its run when you do dpkg-buildpackage) then the
software itself should be happy with what it finds on the system. I
have never run into problems when things complete properly.
--
Scott Henson <debian-list@silvercoin.dyndns.org>
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