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Begin Debian/Ubuntu pre-release explanation:
Posted to NCO groups in Spring 2010
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Debian/Ubuntu users who want the latest NCO features before official
releases, without building from source, take heed: Bleeding-edge NCO
features are available in Debian package format before official
releases. New features are built into pre-release .deb packages as the
features are introduced.  Once an (arbritrary) number of new features
seems stable, we simply announce that the current pre-release code is
the official (stable) release code. For example, .deb packages with
the 4.0.3 release name have been at the expected location

http://nco.sourceforge.net/src/nco_4.0.3-1_amd64.deb

for many months, but the NCO homepage for binary package download
only points to this location once the release is official. Until then,
they are rebuilt and replaced as each new feature is added. When the
release is official, the package is frozen and a package with the next 
version number 

http://nco.sourceforge.net/src/nco_4.0.3-1_amd64.deb

is created. This is not announced until it stabilizes a few months
later. So, with judicious use of dpkg, Debian/Ubuntu users can easily
track NCO feature development more closely than official releases.
Just remove your existing NCO package and replace it with the latest
(unannounced) package that has the feature you want with, e.g., 

wget http://nco.sourceforge.net/src/nco_4.0.3-1_amd64.deb .
sudo dpkg --remove nco
sudo dpkg --install nco_4.0.3-1_*.deb

Caveats: 
1. Only amd64 .debs are available early (because that is my
development machine). Savvy users can build the binary .deb for any
architecture using the other files (.changes, .diff.gz, .dsc, and
.tar.gz) found at the same location.   
2. Pre-release packages are not for the meek, yet getting feedback
on features from those who most need the features is immensely
valuable to stabilizing the code for the final release. So we
encourage users to try these packages. The worst that could happen is
that a pre-release NCO may crush you puppy or eat your cat.
3. These .debs do not yet support netCDF4 (because Debian has been
late in making netCDF4 library .debs available). For netCDF4 support,
you still need to build NCO from source. Or you can use NCO RPMs
(e.g., from Fedora) but those are not built until after official NCO 
releases so you cannot preview features with pre-built RPMs. 
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End Debian/Ubuntu pre-release explanation:
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