Bug#754390: #754390: [src:slepc] any chance to backport more current version to wheezy-backports?

[Drew Parsons]

Hi Giacomo, which version of stable are you currently using? Not wheezy
at the moment?

The current petsc in unstable/testing is 3.6.4 (soon to be updated to
3.7). slepc is closely bound to petsc of course (also v3.6 moving soon
to 3.7)

wheezy fails on these petsc build-depends:
  mpi-default-dev (>= 1.0.2) (wheezy has 1.0.1)
  libsuitesparse-dev (>= 1:4.2.1)  (wheezy has 1:3.4.0-3)

These differences make it difficult (in terms of developer time
resources) to backport.  But if you have the time, it should be
possible for you to hack the build scripts, debian/control and
debian/rules.  For instance you could remove support for suitesparse.	

petsc 3.6.4.dfsg1-3 does build fine on jessie.  You should be able to
build a custom deb package without too much trouble:
  apt-get build-dep petsc
  apt-get install pkg-config libssl-dev   # new build-deps
Download the new petsc source, e.g. the 3 source files listed at 
https://packages.debian.org/source/sid/petsc
Unpack:
  dpkg-source -x petsc_3.6.4.dfsg1-3.dsc
Enter the petsc source dir and build the packages with
  dpkg-buildpackage
or
  dpkg-buildpackage 2>&1 | tee ../build.log

If petsc builds fine then the analogous steps should allow slepc to
build too.