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Would running a container of your choice (Docker, etc.) allow testing/developing tools that require newer versions of things?

When I say “things” here, I’ll give you an example. If I wanted to develop for Emacs 29 and work on most of the new flashy tech, could I do all of this in a container on top of an old-faithful Debian? (I’d be satisfied even if I didn’t get GUI functionality but rather just all the back end Emacs stuff.)

This question really extends to: does an older Debian allow working with cutting edge stuff inside containers?




Absolutely. Keeping a testing or unstable chroot, explicitly for the purpose of running or developing bleeding edge versions of things without disturbing your real install, is a time honored tradition, decades old.

Many, many people do this (to such an extent that there's light tooling and sugar to make the experience easy), including me. :)

(is 29 when native comp comes in?)


Uh, I’m not sure. I’ve been compiling from source with native comp for a while, but I’ve definitely heard rumors that it’s getting bundled into the default configuration

Mostly just a good example of an app that doesn’t run on older Debian setups.

Thanks for clarifying!




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