Elliot Dray wrote: > 1) when you issue the command "apt-get -b build-dep" what exactly does the > build-dep do, does it install dependencies from the branch your trying to > install the package from? I think you have this command confused with another. apt-get build-dep packagename That command installs all of the dependencies that are needed to build the package. This must be done as root since it is making an installation. This is only needed if you don't have something installed that is needed to build the package. The 'help2man' is an example that comes to mind from some packages. fakeroot apt-get -b source packagename This command is not run as root. It downloads the package source. It then builds the package. To build the package it needs root-like privileges and so use fakeroot. But don't use real root. > 1a) when it lists the files to be installed, what happens if they have > dependencies, do you have to keep drilling down? > 1b) is there a script out there to automate the drill down? If there are build dependencies then the apt-get build-dep should install them. If there is a dependency upon another package in unstable which needs to be backported then you need to start again at the beginning and to backport that package first. > 1c)do you end up with a system at testing or unstable by stealth, because > it has recursively installed so many products? Yes, no, maybe. It depends upon what you are installing and how you define things. > 2) will these dependency files overwrite existing files? > 3) can you remove these dependant files after you've managed to install > your package, as one email I found indicated? What are dependency files? I could not deduce to what you were refering. > 4) if a package is very easy to backport, why isn't this done as part of > the original build process? Because it is an arbitrary line between packages that you want to have in the backport and all packages. For example, why isn't glibc backported? Pretty much at the point in time that you backport everything you now have testing/unstable. So this is only viable when you want to stay on stable but also want or need a few specific targeted packages. > 5) In one email I saw this command " apt-get -b build-dep > packagename/testing", this format didn't work for me as apt tried to find > packagename/testing instead of packagename in the testing branch. Is this > suppose to work? Hmm... Can't say. I don't know. I am not an expert on pinning. I usually avoid pinning. Bob
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