[ale] Mixing Debian versions

[Jim Lynch]

David Corbin wrote:

>I have a debian stable system.  I'd like to keep it "stable" as much as 
>possible, but I need some libraries from testing/unstable (more modern 
>versions). 
>
>I know that apt supports "pinning", and mixing various version in various 
>ways, but I've never quite grasped how it works well enough to be successful 
>with it.
>
>How can I say, "use stable for everything", except for this pacakge or that 
>package that I need from "testing". (and ideally, no more updates beyond 
>version X).
>
>Thanks
>  
>
You would be better off if you can find a backport of the software you 
are interested in.  Backports are newer versions of deb packages that 
are in unstable or testing and have been packaged to fit within earlier 
versions, like woody for example.  Google for backport and debian and 
see if what you want isn't already avaliable.  If so that is the safest 
way to go.

Otherwise you can change your sources.list file in /etc/apt to point to 
unstable or testing.  Do an apt-get update to read the new stuff in, 
then apt-get install newpackage.

When you are through, change the sources.list file back to woody and do 
another apt-get update.  Be prepared for problems however.  They can 
happen when you mix two versions. 

That said, I'm running a combination of stable and unstable myself.  It 
takes some luck to keep a system running that way however.  8)

Jim.