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. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
