Fink

Fink is a handy package manager for Mac OS X. It's basically a Mac analog for Ubuntu's Aptitude and RedHat's RPM (RedHat Package Manager).

Installing

You can download Fink from: http://www.finkproject.org/

Leopard (10.5)

It's really easy to install. Use the binary installer.

Snow Leopard (10.6)

Download the tarball with the fink source code in it. Run the bootstrap script, and if you want to, specify the install location. I use /fink instead of the default /sw, for obvious reasons.

./bootstrap /fink

Then just answer the questions, and it will begin the self-installation process.

Using

Making Sure Fink is Up-To-Date

Fink requires a couple of commands to make sure everything is working smoothly. These should be run every so often.

fink selfupdate

fink selfupdate-rsync

fink index -f

fink selfupdate

Installing Binaries Not Part of Fink

There are some programs which are not a part of Fink, but are in the Fink package database. For example, GLUT (an OpenGL utility):

• http://pdb.finkproject.org/pdb/package.php/glut

These programs must be manually added to Fink.

1. Download the .info file that is provided. (If none is provided, skip to #Creating Your Own Fink Packages).

2. Put the .info file in /sw/fink/dists/local/main/finkinfo/ into a file called packagename.info

3. Make sure your Fink is up-to-date by running fink selfupdate

4. Run fink configure to set the verbosity level to high, and to enable the unstable tree (this will include local packages).

5. Run fink list packagename and verify that your package shows up. If it doesn't, double check /sw/etc/fink.conf and ensure that the "Trees" line includes local/main.

6. If that still doesn't work, try fink index

7. Once you see your package, install it using fink install packagename

Creating Your Own Fink Packages

http://www.finkproject.org/doc/quick-start-pkg/quick-start-pkg.en.html

Useful Packages

• aspell
• bash-completion
• bzip2
• bzip2-dev
• bzip2-shlibs
• freeglut
• freeglut-shlibs
• fwipe
• gzip
• imagemagick
• imagemagick10-shlibs
• lynx
• lynx-ssl
• mysql-client
• mysql-dev
• mysql-shlibs
• mysql15-shlibs
• ncurses
• readline
• readline-shlibs
• tar
• tetex
• unzip
• watch
• wget