building from source advice

[cyril <dev@foneport.com>]

Hi

as a Debian newbie (recent redhat convert) I could do with a bit of advice on 
handling any source builds on my server. What kind of issues should I be 
aware of if I choose to build some software from source on a stable Debian 
environment. For example I usually choose to build php / apache from source 
on my servers. I know there is a system called backports which I can also 
look at for gaining slightly more uptodate versions of some software, so any 
advice appreciated.

cyril