If you want to test the latest bleeding-edge source code for aptitude, you can download unreleased aptitude source code using Git. Install Git (available from http://git-scm.com/) and execute the command git clone git://anonscm.debian.org/aptitude/aptitude.git to retrieve the most recent source code.

	Warning
	The aptitude Git repository is an active development tree; it will change as bugs are fixed and features are added, and there is absolutely no guarantee that it will even compile, let alone run properly! Bug reports are welcome, but be aware that you use development code entirely at your own risk![1]

The primary mailing list for aptitude development is <aptitude-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org>. Archives of the list are located at http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/aptitude-devel/. To subscribe, visit the Web page http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/aptitude-devel.

Ideally, patches should be submitted to the aptitude mailing list, <aptitude-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org>. But if you prefer sending them by private email, you may email them to <aptitude@packages.debian.org> or <dburrows@debian.org>. A brief description of the motivation behind your patch, and an explanation of how it works, are greatly appreciated.

The aptitude source tree is regularly updated with new features, bugfixes, and new bugs. Once the source code is available on your computer (see the previous section), you can cd into it and type git pull to update it with any changes made to the main repository.

To automatically receive notifications when changes are made to the aptitude codebase, subscribe to the Atom feed available at http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=aptitude/aptitude.git;a=atom or RSS feed available at http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=aptitude/aptitude.git;a=rss.

To build aptitude from the Git repository, you must have the programs autoconf and automake installed. Type sh ./autogen.sh && ./configure to generate the files needed to compile aptitude, then execute make and make install.