On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 5:15 PM, Dave Potts <[email protected]> wrote:

> I looked to update my debian box to python 2.7 yesterday but the apt
> package is still only in 'experimental'. I'm running on 'unstable' at
> 2.6.

Have you tried just downloading the package (from packages.debian.org)
and installing it with "sudo dpkg -i your-pkg.deb" ? Most times things
will Just Work.

If it doesn't, you can build from source. The Debian way is relatively
easy, once you know it:
1. sudo apt-get install dpkg-dev fakeroot
2. add the SOURCE repository for 'experimental' to your sources.list.
NOT THE BINARIES REPO, just sources. Then "sudo apt-get update" to
receive the software  list.
3. sudo apt-get build_dep python2.7
4. apt-get source python2.7
5. cd python2.7 (or whatever the source dir is)
6. dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot
7. sudo dpkg -i ../your-new-package.deb

Otherwise, you can download the original python source, compile it
manually, and then use something like checkinstall to create a
package. I've done it for python 2.6 ages ago [1], it kinda worked. Or
you can just tell debian to p*ss off, and do an old-school,
non-tracked "make install".

[1] http://blog.pythonaro.com/2008/10/horrible-hack-to-get-python-26-on.html

> Any idea how long it normally takes to get a 2.x increment into
> unstable?

This is funny, because it really should go the other way (the logical
progression would be unstable -> experimental -> testing -> stable),
"unstable" being the playground for wild changes. But since so many
third-parties started using unstable for their releases (Ubuntu being
the most famous ), "experimental" became the real playground, as you
experienced. AFAIK, there's no fixed timescale for packages to move.
Since so many things nowadays depend on Python (it's the new scripting
language of choice for most sysadmins), Debian are usually a bit slow
to produce official debs; in that case, you should maybe look for
unofficial repos.

> Anyone any experience of running debian experimental?

Broken way too often for my taste. But then again, so is unstable IMHO.

Ccheers
-- 
Giacomo Lacava

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