6.4.10 Port a package to the stable system

For partial upgrades of the stable system, rebuilding a package within its environment using the source package is desirable. This avoids massive package upgrades due to their dependencies. First, add the following entries to /etc/apt/sources.list:

     deb-src https://http.us.debian.org/debian testing \
      main contrib non-free
     deb-src https://http.us.debian.org/debian unstable \
      main contrib non-free

Here each entry for deb-src is broken into two lines because of printing constraints, but the actual entry in sources.list should consist of a single line.

Then get the source and make a local package:

     $ apt-get update  # update the source package search list
     $ apt-get source package
     $ dpkg-source -x package.dsc
     $ cd package-version
       ... inspect required packages (Build-Depends in .dsc file) and
           install them too.  You need the "fakeroot" package also.
     
     $ dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot 
     
       ...or (no sig)
     $ dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -us -uc # use "debsign" later if needed
     
       ...Then to install
     $ su -c "dpkg -i packagefile.deb"

Usually, one needs to install a few packages with the "-dev" suffix to satisfy package dependencies. debsign is in the devscripts package. auto-apt may ease satisfying these dependencies. Use of fakeroot avoids unnecessary use of the root account.

In Woody, these dependency issues can be simplified. For example, to compile a source-only pine package:

     # apt-get build-dep pine
     # apt-get source -b pine