Re: managing source packages

[Michal Kapalka <michal.kapalka@epfl.ch>]

>> 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.

One one hand, schroot is indeed a good idea in the long term, and I
might try it at some point (it also seems like a good alternative to
running Lenny in a VM) -- thanks a lot for the suggestion.

On the other hand, I use source debs only for some individual apps that
do not depend on new versions of important libraries (glibc, gtk, etc.)
so (1) the chance of breaking anything is rather low, and (2) the
solution is very convenient and integrates well with all the other
components of the system. The only problem so far was to manage the
source packages in a convenient way.

Best,

	Michal