I need to upgrade a package (libxslt-devel) to a newer version (>1.1.17) on my RHEL 5 system. But I cannot find an rpm that is both newer AND was built for RHEL 5. The RHEL 6 version of the rpm is 1.1.26, plenty new enough to satisfy the pre-req. It appears I have 3 options:

1) make my own from srpm
2) try to install a RHEL 6 rpm on my RHEL 5
3) build a new RHEL 6 system and move my application to it

Am I missing other options? I know that option 2 is risky at best and catastrophic at worst, but is option 1 any less risky? I certainly don't want to make a habit of it, but it's got be less effort than rebuilding my entire application stack on a new RHEL 6 instance.

I would at least try installing it and see what dependencies it requires. At a minimum it will need the corresponding libxslt. Use yum so that you get a final chance to say "N" when you see what it wants to do. If you build your own from the SRPM, it will at least be built against other libraries that you do have installed, so that you wouldn't have to upgrade those as well. I've done that successfully for several packages on my current system, though none of those were libraries.