First of all, note the information in the following question:

• Why can't I update applications without upgrading the whole OS?

This is an approach to build the Quantal (12.10) 4.0.1 version of gawk on 12.04 as a package. It applies to almost all packages you want to backport from a newer Ubuntu release to the one you're using. Most of the times it just builds cleanly. This one does.

1. Install some basic package build tools:

   
   
   

   sudo apt-get install devscripts build-essential
   
   sudo apt-get build-dep gawk
   
   




2. Install the key of the developer (example key!):

   
   
   

   gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-key B6897E7B
   
   

   
   
   

   This key identifier should be replaced by the error output of the dget command below.




3. Make the devscripts use your keyring too, as per Added key, but dget still shows “gpg: Can't check signature: public key not found":

   
   
   

   echo 'DSCVERIFY_KEYRINGS="/etc/apt/trusted.gpg:~/.gnupg/pubring.gpg"' >> ~/.devscripts
   
   




4. Download the source package (.dsc file link from gawk package page in the sidebar):

   
   
   

   dget http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/g/gawk/gawk_4.0.1+dfsg-2.dsc
   
   




5. cd into it:

   
   
   

   cd gawk-4.0.1+dfsg/
   
   




6. First attempt to build (fails possibly):

   
   
   

   debuild -uc -us
   
   

   
   
   

   if fails, relevant output with dpkg-checkbuilddeps: Unmet build dependencies (below is an example!):

   
   
   

   Unmet build dependencies: bison libreadline-dev libsigsegv-dev
   
   




7. Install the additional build dependencies you still need at this point. Example:

   
   
   

   sudo apt-get install bison libreadline-dev libsigsegv-dev
   
   




8. Retry building (should build fine now!):

   
   
   

   debuild -uc -us
   
   




9. cd back into the upper directory:

   
   
   

   cd ..
   
   




10. Find your package there:

    
    
    

    ls -al *.deb
    
    




11. Install it:

    
    
    

    sudo dpkg -i gawk_4.0.1+dfsg-2_amd64.deb
    
    




12. Enjoy!

In case you don't want to bother compiling this stuff, you still have two options:

PPA

I've uploaded this on my PPA (waiting to be built at this moment) for your convenience.

• My PPA


• What are PPAs and how do I use them?

Manual installation of Quantal binary package

1. Download the appropriate .deb file from the packages.ubuntu.com page, e.g. http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/g/gawk/gawk_4.0.1+dfsg-2_amd64.deb




2. Install it manually:

   
   
   

   sudo dpkg -i gawk_4.0.1+dfsg-2_amd64.deb