> To use an example, I'd like to take the source package for Snort (2.0.0-2) > in unstable and rebuild it against stable so that I can update my > otherwise stable installation with a newer version of Snort, without > dragging in all the other dependencies from unstable that just installing > the Snort 2.0.0-2 binary package from unstable would do. > > Is it as simple as using something like pbuilder and tweaking the > Build-Depends to match the versions of the packages that are in stable?
To answer the question, the answer is 'no, not always'. You need some try-and-error, and usually backporting one package requires backporting of another. However, many people do it due to their needs. The biggest stumbling block is probably debhelper; if you could ignore that, things would be pretty straightforward (in most cases). regards, junichi