Hi All,
2013/2/4 Evan Huus <eapache@xxxxxxxxx>:
> On Sun, Feb 3, 2013 at 7:53 PM, Guy Harris <guy@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>> On Feb 3, 2013, at 4:32 PM, Evan Huus <eapache@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>>> Isn't "apt-get build-dep wireshark" a much easier way of doing the same thing?
>>
>> Would that install "tools needed to build the package that "apt-get install wireshark" would install" or would it install "tools needed to do full-blown development of the version of Wireshark on the trunk, even if the version on the trunk incorporates a whole bunch of new functionality needing new libraries"?
>
> The former.
Theoretically the former but practically it also matches the latter.
Wireshark is not fast in changing dependencies, thus luckily it worked
well for me in the past.
>
>> The latter is what I'm aiming for here (especially given that Debian-and-its-derivatives are often proudly trailing-edge in the versions of software that they offer, e.g. I think they might still offer Wireshark 1.6 by default).
>
> That makes more sense. Debian offers 1.8.2 with a few specific
> security fixes backported at the moment, since they are still in
> freeze before a release. Otherwise I believe they're fairly regular
> about picking up the latest upstream. Balint can speak more to that.
> Ubuntu (and probably most other derivatives) just take what's latest
> from Debian when they release but don't update past that (so the
> latest Ubuntu is also on 1.8.2+, but Ubuntu 12.04 is still on 1.6.7 as
> that was the latest upstream Wireshark when Ubuntu 12.04 was frozen).
In Debian and in Ubuntu released distribution versions don't get updates to
incorporate the latest upstream version of packages, but only
security/stability upgrades. This is why Ubuntu has patched 1.6.x and
Debian stable has patched 1.2.x.
The way of providing newer upstream versions in Debian for example is
through http://backports-master.debian.org/.
It is more convenient for users than compiling their own versions.
Since Debian is in "freeze" i.e. finalizing the next stable, I can't update
Wireshark to 1.8.5, I'm only allowed to back-port important fixes.
You can follow the history of the package on
http://packages.qa.debian.org/w/wireshark.html which shows that I package
the latest version with a very small lag when we are not in freeze state.
Cheers,
Balint
