Backports vs. Sarge
'ello,
I am in a bit of a quandary with my Woody server and was wondering what
people's thoughts are.
I wanted to compile mod_python so that my MoinMoin Wiki would go
faster. This required that I install the apache2-threaded-dev package.
Unfortunately, the version of apache2 from backports.org has moved on
since I installed it (2.0.48 at the time -- and it is now 2.0.50).
The problem I have is that if I upgrade, I will have to move to 2.0.50.
Seeing as Sarge only has 2.0.49 and may be released soon, I don't want
to upgrade. This is because I imagine that if Sarge is released and I
have a newer version of apache2, I'll never be able to update my apache2
and get security updates, etc. The same thing has happened with the
ClamAV packages (sarge has 0.73 and the earliest backport I can find is
0.74).
I really don't know what I should do -- have you got any suggestions?
To be honest, I was thinking of upgrading my whole server to Sarge and
tracking that back down to stable. The reason for this is that I need
to have a proper Postfix2 (amongst other things) set-up all sorted out
before I move back to uni. When I go, I don't want to be dist-upgrading
because there would be no way I could fix the box if it goes wrong (I'd
be >100 miles away from it :-)).
The reason I am so apprehensive is that I have never been through a
Debian stable dist-upgrade cycle before and am not sure what to expect.
I really like Debian and have used it exclusively, after trying most of
the others, for over 1.5 years now (Sid/Sarge desktops and a Woody
server). These types of issues have been getting me down recently,
though.
I think it would be a great idea to have a stable server release every
six months or year and have the Desktop on a separate track (as that
appears to be one of the more difficult things to stabilise). This
would mean that servers could be kept reliable but not ancient :-) and
desktops could be released ``when they're done''. I don't mean to upset
anyone or start a flame war by saying that; it's just an idea that
occurred to me.
Any advice on my current situation would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
in advance,
bye just now,
--
Matthew T. Atkinson <matthew@agrip.org.uk>
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