Re: Debian and security/bugfixes/errata

From: Centurion (spam_this_at_nowhere.com)
Date: 11/18/03 

Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2003 08:41:44 +1100

George Adams wrote:

> Thanks for the reply, Cameron. I'll give woody another look, though
> you're right in assuming we'd probably need more recent versions of
> Apache, PHP,
> etc. Which brings up a question:

*SNIPPED*
 
> Would the process (and drawbacks) of installing custom programs on Debian
> be
> the same? i.e. if I decide that I just have to have features x,y, and z
> in a newer version of PHP that woody doesn't have, am I going to have to
> just resign myself to doing the manual recompile/reinstall thing that I
> did back in my old RH days?
>
> If that's true, and if (as you say) woody has a number of very stable,
> secure, but "ancient" programs, then I may end up having more programs I
> have to maintain by hand than I did back with RH.
>
> Thanks again.

Another avenue not really discussed yet is "backports". There are a number
of repositories that have ported the newest versions of software so you can
install them on a standard Woody machine. I run several Debian production
machines running Woody with backported PHP-4.3.4, MySQL-4.x (can't remember
the sub version) etc. Most of my backports come from
http://www.backports.org/. They are timely with their bug and security
fixes (less than 2 days for the most recent SSH bugs). No problems yet :)

Backports are great because they integrate into Debian's normal packaging
system without you needing to know whether it's a backport or a standard
Woody package. You simply add the list of backport repositories to
/etc/apt/sources.list then do "apt-get update" and voila - you're ready to
install the new versions available in the repositories.

FWIW, this laptop I'm writing on is Debian Woody with backported KDE-3.1.4
etc and it has never missed a beat (or an update) :) YMMV

--James
__________________________________
A random quote of nothing:

A Parable of Modern Research:

        Bob has lost his keys in a room which is dark except for one
brightly lit corner.
        "Why are you looking under the light, you lost them in the dark!"
        "I can only see here."

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Debian and security/bugfixes/errata
    ... > Apache, PHP, ... > in a newer version of PHP that woody doesn't have, am I going to have to ... Another avenue not really discussed yet is "backports". ... You simply add the list of backport repositories to ...
    (comp.os.linux.security)
  • Re: Debian and security/bugfixes/errata
    ... > Apache, PHP, ... > in a newer version of PHP that woody doesn't have, am I going to have to ... Another avenue not really discussed yet is "backports". ... You simply add the list of backport repositories to ...
    (comp.os.linux.misc)
  • Re: sarge?
    ... > the idea of woody with backports better than sid which broke some of my ... Backport Edition" almost qualifies as a distro unto itself, ... it's far messier than present day Sid. ...
    (Debian-User)
  • Re: Tarballs, backports... and dist-upgrade?
    ... > How will this affect the eventual dist-upgrade once sarge gets released? ... I believe that'll depend on the version numbers used by the backports. ... If they're numbered by appending something at the end of the woody ... then they'll be replaced by the sarge version. ...
    (Debian-User)
  • Re: sources.list directory specification
    ... well I've been using the backports and proposeds for awhile now and ... besides Debian Backports are official part ... Please don't be offended, it's not a criticism of your choices, or implying that those repositories are full of flakey packages. ... "I'm just so sick of airports, sitting on planes on runways and the planes won't take off. ...
    (Debian-User)