Re: managing source packages
On Wed, Jun 04, 2008 at 04:18:11PM +0200, Michal Kapalka wrote:
> I have been using Debian stable on my laptop for some time now, and I
> really appreciate it, especially because updates do not break things
> that work well. However, sometimes I need a package/feature that is only
> in testing/unstable, and which is not (yet) in backports. The safest way
> (I guess) to deal with those packages is to install them from source
> using "apt-get build-dep / apt-get -b source / dpkg -i", but there are
> several shortcomings of this method, which I describe below. Any
> thoughts of how one can manage source packages better would be appreciated.
>
> 1. Installing/building dependencies
>
> Say, I want to build a package pkg1. Usually, "apt-get build-dep pkg1"
> will install all dependencies. However, apt-get will fail if one of
> them, say pkg2, is not in "stable". Then, I have to install dependencies
> of pkg2, build pkg2 itself, and possibly do so recursively with
> dependencies of pkg2 (and it took me hours when I tried that with
> texlive...). It would be nice if "apt-get" (or some other tool) would
> just try to resolve that itself, e.g., write "I need to install packages
> pkgA, pkgB from Etch, and build+install source packages pkgTestingA,
> pkgTestingB from Lenny. Do you want to continue? [Y/N]".
One problem may be that you end up with a mixed system and could break
things. Since disk space is so cheap, why not set up a testing (or Sid)
chroot and install the new stuff there? Access it with schroot.
Doug.
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