Installing Svn 1.5.x on Debian Etch - Best approach?

Question

(a little off topic - although SVN is a key programming tool....)

How do you install svn 1.5 on debian etch? The svn 1.5 packages available for etch are 1.4 and I really need the cool new merge tracking feature in svn1.5 (according to CollabNet its as good as ClearCase...an interesting statement in oh so many ways). So, what's the least painful way to go?

My options are:

• build it from source
• create my own debian package
• upgrade to a test version of Lenny
• find someone else's svn 1.5 package

Which one have you chosen or which do you think has the least amount of suffering?

Answer 1

It depends on whether you want to be able to upgrade Subversion in future using Debian's package management tools. Building it from source should be easy enough, and lets you configure it the way you want, but then each time you want to upgrade, you'll need to build it from source again, rather than a simple apt-get.

Answer 2

Here's a nice post to build it yourself with some responses that said it worked well:

http://www.rooftopsolutions.nl/article/198

Answer 3

Have you considered pinning? Basically, you can upgrade some of your system (i.e. just Subversion and its dependencies) to Lenny, while keeping the rest as Etch.