Partially distributed distributions [LWN.net]

Partially distributed distributions

Posted Feb 10, 2008 15:55 UTC (Sun) by Lennie (subscriber, #49641)
In reply to: Partially distributed distributions by alextingle
Parent article: LCA: Disintermediating distributions

Also you can use apt-pinning to get a newer version for Debian (Ubuntu ?) testing or even
experimental.

If you add the other 'version' of the distribution (like Debian testing) to your
/etc/apt/sources.list and specify which package you want to upgrade in /etc/apt/preferences
(that's the pinning-part).

It will automatically upgrade any dependencies as well.

This way you can test a newer version and even go back to the distrbution original version
from for example Debian-stable very easily.

If you created a patch for a package (if you did the apt-get source, dpkg-source -x;
dpkg-buildpackage), don't forget to change the version-number in the debian/control file, tag
your initial or organisation at the end of the existing version number with a 1 or 2, etc. so
you can upgrade the package later.

And other way to upgrade a package is to add only the source lines to your
/etc/apt/sources.list and do a apt-get source, dpkg-source, dpkg-buildpackage. You might need
to change the debian/control-file to specify a different version number as dependency or
install that first.

On upgrade (apt-get -u dist-upgrade) or even update of your distribution it will automatically
upgrade your packages, etc. if needed.

(Log in to post comments)

Partially distributed distributions

Posted Feb 10, 2008 16:03 UTC (Sun) by Lennie (subscriber, #49641) [Link]

And I forgot to mention the apt-get build-dep command.

Which will install the build-dependencies of the package.

apt-get build-dep: better than sliced bread?

Posted Feb 22, 2008 7:24 UTC (Fri) by goaty (guest, #17783) [Link]

Have you ever tried apt-get build-dep on a fresh install that doesn't have any build tools
installed? It will pull in the entire build system: gcc, header files, everything, with one
command! With a fast disk and a fast network it is insanely pleasurable.

Kids growing up in the Age of APT may never realise that building stuff used to be *hard*.
It's lucky there are other operating systems around for them to use and understand what pain
means.