I went to build and found out about all the libraries it needs (that are not available as apt-get for this distribution).
@nefario: you can use my sources and ubuntu backports maybe, or only the debian directory and check the debian/control file, only is necesary you change maybe the build-depends line, after that, only do debuild or git-buildpackage.
I think a virtual machine image is a bad idea, because a malicious person could include a modified tool within this virtual image. The C++ compiler, for example, could be modified for malicious purposes, and this might not be detected.
+1
Tags can be freely changed, so then after testing this tag can be replaced by 'v0.3.20'
Also all gurus who viewed the source of this commit also can place a signed tag like:
v0.3.20-rc-alex
v0.3.20-rc-31337-haxor
newest-viewed-by-denis
etc...
Then users can check signatures of these people and if they trust them they can be calm.
+1
Is not necesary delete tags, i like the tags to know which code is used in the build process.
I can help you for debian package:
1.- You need a debian system, in this case maybe lenny or squeeze.
2.- Follow this guide:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PbuilderHowto ¿Sure?, yes, this work for debian and ubuntu.
3.- Use cowbuilder with pbuilder.
4.- Create the sources (.orig.tar.gz, .dsc, .debian.tar.gz), using "dpkg-source -b".
5.- And build the packages with cowbuilder.
6.- Test your packages.
For example, in my slow machine, bitcoin-cpuminer is compiled for five debian versions, using a virtualbox install, the first thing is the source code, after that, is necesary ~2 hour to compile.
Prepare the source code (ubuntu and debian)(~2 hour) + Compile (only debian, only i386)(~2 hours) = ~4 hours.
Sometimes is very less than 4 hours, and other times is more that 4 hours.
Greetings.