[gdal-dev] Mapserver & GDAL in various Linux repositories

[William Kyngesburye]

I'm trying to get a handle on installing Mapserver on different Linux  
systems, so I can make recommendations to clients for setting up  
systems with Mapserver.

For standard repositories for different Linux distributions, I see  
quite a variety of names and versions:

Ubuntu: I have 8.04 on my MacBook, so I could check this directly - I  
find MapServer 5.0.0 and GDAL 1.4.4.  A web package list gives me MS  
4.10 and GDAL 1.4.1 for 7.10.

Debian: the web package listing shows MS 4.10/GDAL 1.5.0 for etch, and  
MS 5.0.2/GDAL 1.5.1 for the upcoming lenny.

Redhat: I couldn't find a web interface to search for packages, but  
did find a reference to Redhat 5 which has MS 4.10 and GDAL 1.4.2.

The Mapserver download page has links to old Mapping Hacks RPMs, and a  
really old FGS bundle.

There's the FWTools, which is supposed to have the latest dev versions  
of MS and GDAL for almost any 32bit Linux, but I'm not sure I want to  
put dev versions into a production environment.


Any other ideas? - custom repositories with more up to date, or  
consistent across Linux systems, version?  Building from source would  
only be an option for the more savvy clients.  Maybe something similar  
to FWTools but with stable versions only?

I definitely want at least MapServer 5 (though I could live with 4.10  
in a pinch).  GDAL version is more flexible, though it would be good  
to have the newer Python bindings in 1.5.  Other support dependencies  
are less of a concern (except maybe PROJ).

-----
William Kyngesburye <kyngchaos*at*kyngchaos*dot*com>
http://www.kyngchaos.com/

"Time is an illusion - lunchtime doubly so."

- Ford Prefect