Use Debian jessie or xenial-proposed as backports in trusty?

[Lukas Erlacher]

Hi,

thanks for your response.

On 04.04.2016 10:22, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
> On Mon, 4 Apr 2016 09:53:24 +0200, Lukas Erlacher wrote:
>> trusty-backports is pretty meh, so - is there an easy and sensible way
>> to install newer packets, e.g. from Debian jessie or xenial-proposed,
>> into trusty without breakage?
> 
> Hi,
> 
> some software perhaps could be upgraded easily, but unlikely that there
> is any chance to update software that is based on dependencies to a
> wholesale framework. The biggest problem are dependencies to shared
> libraries, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soname. It's possible to keep
> several versions of a shared library, but not by updating a package,
> since this replaces the old files, by new files.

That's what I feared, thanks.

> So, no, the sensible
> way, pinning, doesn't help you with adding new software to a long-term
> support release.

So it seems my only option is trying to make my own backports repo?

> Even if it would be possible, it wouldn't make sense
> to do so, since this would break spirit and purpose of a long-term
> support release. 

Spirit and purpose of the Ubuntu LTS Releases is sadly already broken by the huge amount of ancient packages and packages that are incompatible with each other (Take squid and calamaris as an example: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/calamaris/+bug/1563202) - I know this is foremost a manpower problem, but it's a problem.

> However, if you anyway wish to upgrade to software
> that depends to a wholesale framework, and you would be willing to
> resolve all dependencies, it would become more or less equal to a
> release upgrade.

The release upgrade to xenial will hopefully happen soon, but I'll still have the same problem...

Best,
Luke