Hamish Moffatt wrote: > > So, I think if somebody really wants to run some newer software > (which isn't necessarily stable in our terms), then the choices are: > > 1. compile it from sources -- ugly, but workable. Even to the extent > of making your own packages, which I gather youve done. > > 2. upgrade to the unstable package, and in the case of hamm, install > enough of hamm to run it. This isn't actually that much; > new ldso, libc6, new libc5 I think, and some libraries. With such > a system, you can run libc6 binaries but compilation is done for > libc5, etc. I have such a system and it works fine. > > (3. try to backport the package yourself.) >
The right answer is 3. Answer 2. is the wrong one. Remember that we are now speaking of people who _cannot_ upgrade their systems to hamm, because they are production machines, and/or their sites have a policy to not install "unstable" software unless it's absolutely necesssary. Often these people are urged to get "latest" version of some important software, for direct request or because of embedded dependency. The problem with answer 3. is that it embeds answer 1., plus the load to debianization. Therefore people goes for 1. and then complains because they lose the advantage of using dpkg, and/or the encounters problems that had been solved previously in the debian packages. They feel that those are debian's fault. We need very little to do offer 3. to our customers. Most maintainers have a double boot machine (like me), or have a bo machine on their net, and launching recompilation of latest packages (after a small change in the changelog file) is a little waste of time (and gives more benefits). I remember of one developer who couldn't upgrade his only machine to hamm; he could only help doing non-maintainer uploads of new packages. Pay attention: nobody here is proposing to create a debian-1.4 libc5 based release! That would be a waste of energies. Only new packages and security fixes should be libc5-recompiled, not everything. Doing this, we will also establish a policy on _how_ should be handled releases for stable. It's my opinion that we should never move directly packages from unstable to stable, but in case recompile them on a stable-based machine (we had plenty of bugs because of that). Fabrizio -- | [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Pluto Leader - Debian Developer & Happy Debian 1.3.1 User - vi-holic | 6F7267F5 fingerprint 57 16 C4 ED C9 86 40 7B 1A 69 A1 66 EC FB D2 5E > Just because Red Hat do it doesn't mean it's a good idea. [Ian J.] -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .