Upgrading Imagemagick to a current version

Following How do I install ImageMagick 6.5.6 on Debian Lenny? it is possible to backport a current version of Imagemagick into the debian system. First make sure to add the source repository:

 sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
## edit the following:
# comment for backporting imagemagick to imagemagick-6.6.0.4
 deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main contrib non-free

# check imagemagick version number:
  convert --version
# Start the building process (default configure options):
  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get build-dep imagemagick # build dependencies
# Change to a directory you'll be using for building
  mkdir ~/temp/ 
  cd ~/temp/ # go to a temporary directory in your home
# For the next part you can be a regular user.
  apt-get source imagemagick # fetch all current header source files to enable building from source
  cd imagemagick-6.6.0.4/
  fakeroot debian/rules binary # compile and build the stuff → creates ../*.dep
# last message looks like:
# dpkg-deb: building package `imagemagick' in `../imagemagick_6.6.0.4-2.2_i386.deb'.
# ...
  sudo dpkg -i *.deb # install debian packages with the package manager
# remove temporary data
  cd ~/temp/
  sudo rm -r imagemagick-6.6.0.4* 
  sudo rm -r imagemagick_6.6.0.4* 
# check imagemagick version number:
  convert

It's also possible to compile with different ./configure options than the default:

# ... as above
  cd ~/temp/ # go to a temporary directory in your home
# For the next part you can be a regular user.
  apt-get source imagemagick # fetch all current header source files to enable building from source
  cd imagemagick-6.6.0.4/debian
  nano rules # add your configure option in that file
  cd ~/temp/imagemagick-6.6.0.4/
# proceed as above
  fakeroot debian/rules binary # compile and build the stuff → creates ../*.dep
# ...

Final note (cited from instructions referenced above): «Enjoy your new packages, but remember to check for security releases periodically and rebuild as needed, as you are now outside of Debian's security release framework. You may want to consider subscribing to the Debian-security-announce mailing list.»