[vox-tech] Apt vs. Compiling

[Ken Bloom]

Robert G. Scofield wrote:
> I love K3b, and actually use it to back up my business files in Windows 98 
> since I don't like my CD burning EULA in Windows.  But K3b is not yet 
> available in Debian testing.  (I use it in SuSE.)
> 
> Suppose I downloaded K3b and compiled it in Debian.  Then suppose that K3b 
> later becomes available in testing.  What would apt do?  Would it update the 
> compiled program?  Or does apt ignore the programs that apt did not 
> originally install?

For future reference, here are a few tips in descending order of preference:

1) Have patience, because the package may appear in testing within the
next few days. Sometimes things are removed from testing temporarily to
speed up upgrades in testing (when a single package can hold back a
large transition by being reuploaded with a bug fix). Only if the
package is in unstable now.

2) Pin unstable as rick suggests, and see if the package is there. (This
can be a lot of work over the long term, and I found it easier and more
stable to just use unstable)

3) Download the package sources from unstable or experimental if they're
there and recompile the package on your own using debuild. Then you have
a package that runs on testing. This is called a backport, and they're
more common for stable. When using stable, you should definitely prefer
this to option 2 (which should probably be demoted all the way to the
end of the list)

4) Check out apt-get.org and see whether there's an unofficial
repository with this package.

5) If the package isn't in unstable or experimental, package the package
yourself and possibly find a sponsor to upload it.

6) apt-get install checkinstall. Use checkinstall instead of the "make
install" step, and everything that gets installed will wind up in a
single deb.

-- 
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