Outdated gawk 5.0.1 on Ubuntu

[Manuel Collado]

The official Ubuntu repository only provides a bit outdated versions of 
gawk (5.0.1) and other GNU packages, like texinfo (6.7). In order to 
have more recent software some advice will be welcome.

1.- Are there other secure repositories that provide latest gawk 
binaries for Ubuntu? Beside the official ones.

2.- To install by compiling sources, which --prefix is recommended? In 
order to not overwrite the official Ubuntu version. And in that case, is 
ok to use 'alternatives' to give preference to the most recent version?

Sorry is these are naive questions. I've just started working as 
sysadmin of my personal linux machine.

TIA.
--
Manuel Collado - http://mcollado.z15.es