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I run Ubuntu 16.04 and need to use ddrescue from the gddrescue package. (NB: this is NOT the same software at all as dd_rescue from the ddrescue package). The latest version available via apt-get is 1.19, and the latest version available via apt-get for ANY version of ubuntu is 1.22. However, the latest version available from gnu.org is 1.23, and I would like to run the latest version. My questions are:

  1. I have no problem to build the latest version from ftp.gnu.org/ddrescue/ddrescue-1.23.tar.lz, but once I do, is there some way to install it on my system so that apt-get "knows" about it? For example, if 1.20 appears in some repository I use, I would not like apt-get to "upgrade" to this, etc.

  2. Would it "decent/correct/good/nice" of me to turn my build of this software into an apt-get installable package and contribute it to the appropriate repositories? I can't imagine that it's all that difficult to do, though I CAN imagine that it might be a bit fiddly and that for security reasons, random unknown users are not in general allowed to upload upgrades of established software packages.

If this is a contribution which is allowed, could someone point me to a. the official directions for producing an apt-get package? and b. the official directions for submitting that package?

I run Ubuntu 16.04, but I'll bet that ddrescue builds identically for any distro that's based on the same debian as that version of Ubuntu. Should I be trying to contribute a package for that debian?

Thanks

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You can build it from source using checkinstall, read this wiki page for details: https://wiki.debian.org/CheckInstall

TL;DR checkinstall creates a .deb package, which you can then uninstall either via apt or dpkg.

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