[gdal-dev] installing debian GDAL version >= 1.9

[Tom Roche]

Seeking advice on updating a debian box to GDAL version >= 1.9:

Etienne Tourigny Mon, 9 Jul 2012 23:01:35 -0300
> What you want to achieve can be done with [gdalwarp. ...] You will
> need gdal version 1.9 to work properly with netcdf files (especially
> to use gdalwarp).

I'm currently running

$ lsb_release -ds
> Linux Mint Debian Edition
$ cat /etc/debian_version
> wheezy/sid
$ uname -rv
> 3.2.0-2-amd64 #1 SMP Sun Mar 4 22:48:17 UTC 2012
$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list
> deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ debian main upstream import
> deb http://debian.linuxmint.com/latest testing main contrib non-free
> deb http://debian.linuxmint.com/latest/security testing/updates main contrib non-free
> deb http://debian.linuxmint.com/latest/multimedia testing main non-free
...

Unfortunately

me at it:~$ which gdalwarp
> /usr/bin/gdalwarp
me at it:~$ gdalwarp --version
> GDAL 1.7.3, released 2010/11/10
me at it:~$ sudo aptitude update
# was up-to-date

I noted

http://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=gdal-bin&searchon=names&suite=all&section=all&sourceid=mozilla-search
> Package gdal-bin
...
>     wheezy (testing) [...] 1.9.0-3+b1

so I did

me at it:/etc/apt$ sudo cp sources.list sources.list_20120710_1834
me at it:/etc/apt$ sudo emacs -nw -q sources.list
me at it:/etc/apt$ diff -wB sources.list_20120710_1834 sources.list
20c20
< #deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free
---
> deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free
me at it:~$ sudo aptitude update
# very not up-to-date
me at it:~$ sudo aptitude install -s gdal-bin

This wants

> The following NEW packages will be installed:
>   libarmadillo3{a} libblas3{a} libgdal1{a} libgeos-3.3.3{a} libkml0{a} liblapack3{a} libmysqlclient18{a} libpoppler19{ab}
>   liburiparser1{a}
> The following packages will be REMOVED:
>   libgeos-3.3.1{u}
> The following packages will be upgraded:
>   gdal-bin libblas3gf libgeos-c1 liblapack3gf liblzma5 mysql-common
> 6 packages upgraded, 9 newly installed, 1 to remove and 1326 not upgraded.
> Need to get 14.8 MB of archives. After unpacking 26.0 MB will be used.
> The following packages have unmet dependencies:
>   libblas-dev: Depends: libblas3gf (= 1.2.20110419-2) but 1.2.20110419-5 is to be installed.
>   liblapack-dev: Depends: liblapack3gf (= 3.3.1-1) but 3.4.1-4 is to be installed.
>   libpoppler19: Depends: libfontconfig1 (>= 2.9.0) but 2.8.0-2.1ubuntu3 is installed.

I attempted to evaluate those dependencies (but I am not an APT expert):

me at it:~$ aptitude search ~Dlibblas-dev | grep -e '^i'
i   liblapack-dev   - Library of linear algebra routines 3 - sta
i   r-base-dev      - GNU R installation of auxiliary GNU R pack
me at it:~$ aptitude search ~Dliblapack-dev | grep -e '^i'
i   r-base-dev      - GNU R installation of auxiliary GNU R pack

I use R a lot, but am not averse to trying R from testing. However,

me at it:~$ aptitude search ~Dlibfontconfig1 | grep -e '^i' | wc -l
> 230

seems scary, since

me at it:~$ aptitude search ~Dlibfontconfig1 | grep -e '^i' | less

appears to show many important dependencies (e.g., emacs, xulrunner,
cinnamon, gnome-shell, MATE). Am I missing, or misinterpreting,
something? If not, is there a better/safer way for me to upgrade my
GDAL to version >= 1.9?

TIA, Tom Roche <Tom_Roche at pobox.com>