Hello Rodolfo.

> I perchance need install the latest version of xpdf-reader, the one included 
> in
> unstable and testing repositories, in my Sarge stable system. This is not 
> possible with
> simply `dpkg -i ...' because of dependence problems. In general: isn't it 
> possible, it
> seems, to install an `unstable' package into a `stable' system without 
> changing
> sources.list, i.e. without upsetting the `Stable' structure?

Basically all you have to do is to add unstable- and testing-entries to your 
sources.list,
do an „apt-get update“ and then „apt-get install packagename=version“ or 
„apt-get install
packagename -t distribution“. (See the manpage of apt-get of course.)

But mixing distributions is neither recommended nor supported and if your 
system breaks
(which is very likely to happen), you are on your own.

Let’s have a look at the dependendies of xpdf-reader from unstable:

> Depends: lesstif2, libc6 (>= 2.3.6-6), libfreetype6 (>= 2.2), libgcc1 (>= 
> 1:4.1. 0),
> libice6, libpaper1, libsm6, libstdc++6 (>= 4.1.0), libt1-5 (>= 5.0.2), libx1 
> 1-6,
> libxext6, libxp6, libxpm4, libxt6, zlib1g (>= 1:1.2.1), gsfonts (>= 6.0-1),
> xpdf-common (= 3.01-9)

Seeing this you should see that installing this package would change *your 
whole system*,
because of the dependency on a new version of libc6, on of the most important 
packages on
your system.

And you don’t have luck: there seems to be no package on bpo[0], but you could 
ask
somebody on the mailinglist[1], if they could rebuild xpdf-reader for sarge.

To put it short: If you don’t want to upgrade to unstable/testing or use a 
non-supported
mixed system, forget about it. Really.


Regards, Mathias

[0] http://backports.org/dokuwiki/doku.php
[1] http://lists.backports.org/mailman/listinfo

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