Fink

The Fink project wants to bring the full world of Unix Open Source software to Darwin and Mac OS X. We modify Unix software so that it compiles and runs on Mac OS X ("port" it) and make it available for download as a coherent distribution. Fink uses Debian tools like dpkg and apt-get to provide powerful binary package management. You can choose whether you want to download precompiled binary packages or build everything from source. Read more...

 News

2009-10-30: Servers back to normal.-

Our user services have been restored. On Oct 28th the Web site and some of the mirrors (rsync, source files, binary distribution) were restored, and on Oct 30th all of our main rsync mirrors were operational. Once again, we apologise for the inconvenience. Thanks for your patience and support.

2009-10-24: Server issues.-

We have had server issues and as a result the Web site and the official binary distribution are down, and the rsync servers are stalled. Whilst we sort this out, you may:

  • (Web site) Use http://fink.thetis.ig42.org if you need Web site information
  • (selfupdate) If you use rsync as your selfupdate method then edit /sw/etc/fink.conf and replace the line that starts with Mirror-rsync with Mirror-rsync: rsync://fink.gecko.ig42.org/finkinfo/
  • (source files) Edit /sw/etc/fink.conf and replace the line that starts with Mirror-master with Mirror-master: http://fink-dist.gecko.ig42.org
  • (bindist) Edit /sw/etc/fink.conf and replace the line that starts with Mirror-apt: with Mirror-apt: http://fink-bindist.gecko.ig42.org
  • (bindist) Edit /sw/etc/apt/sources.list and replace http://bindist.finkmirrors.net/bindist with http://fink-bindist.gecko.ig42.org
  • (bindist) Run fink scanpackages.

We apologise for the inconvenience.

2009-08-28: Fink on 10.6.-

Fink is ready to be used on Snow Leopard (OS X v. 10.6). Users will need to choose between a 32-bit version of fink and a 64-bit version of fink for 10.6. The 32-bit version has more packages available at the present time, but the 64-bit version represents the future direction for OS X and for fink; individual users must make this decision on their own. It will not be possible to "upgrade" from 32-bit to 64-bit (or vice versa), without completely reinstalling fink.

At the moment, two methods are available for installing Fink on Snow Leopard. A binary installer is not available, so it is important to first install XCode from the Optional Installs folder on the Snow Leopard disk. Users wanting the 64-bit version, or users upgrading directly from 10.4 or earlier, must bootstrap fink from the distribution tarball (version 0.29.9 or later), available at sourceforge.net; installation instructions are here. On the other hand, users can upgrade directly from 10.5 to the 32-bit version, following the instructions below. (One warning: users who have installed a development version of fink from CVS rather than a released version may encounter trouble; please downgrade your fink to a released version, and remove stray .deb files of higher versions, before beginning.)

To upgrade, follow a four step process. Step 1: edit the file /sw/etc/fink.conf, adding a line to it which reads NoAutoIndex: true (You may need to use sudo to obtain the correct permissions to edit this file.) Step 2: run the command fink reinstall fink in order to tell fink that you are now on 10.6. (If you encounter a message about package database corruption, run fink index -f and try this step again.) Step 3: run the command fink update fink to get the latest fink for 10.6. Step 4: run the command fink install perl588-core to replace the version of perl which Apple changed during the OS X upgrade, in case you have fink packages which depend on it.

After the upgrade, you may wish to run fink configure to do some cleanup.

Almost all of the packages in fink's stable tree will compile on 10.6, but be warned that only a fraction of the 10.5 packages are currently available for 10.6. In the near future, fink's package database will be updated to include information about packages for 10.6; you can check there to see if your favorite package is ready.

   

 Recent Package Updates

2010-03-22: supertuxkart-0.6.2a-1002 (3D racing game with many tracks and extras)
2010-03-22: sbcl-1.0.36-1 (ANSI Common Lisp implementation)
2010-03-22: maxima-5.20.1-5 (Symbol manipulation program)
2010-03-22: box-0.1.3-1 (Vector graphics language)
2010-03-22: armagetronad-0.2.8.3.1-1004 (3D Tron clone)
2010-03-21: libbabl0.0.0-shlibs-0.0.22-2 (Any-to-any graphics-buffer conversion lib)
2010-03-21: libbabl0.1.0-shlibs-0.1.2-1 (Any-to-any graphics-buffer conversion lib)
2010-03-21: mhwaveedit-1.4.18-2 (GTK+2 wave editor with several sound backends)
2010-03-20: gtkwave-3.3.5-1 (GTK Electronic Waveform Viewer)
2010-03-20: libdrizzle-0.8-2 (Drizzle Client & Protocol Library)
2010-03-20: pcre-8.02-1 (Perl Compatible Regular Expressions Library)
more...

Status

Fink 0.9.0 was released on 26 June 2008. This release includes source and binary packages as well as binary installers for both PowerPC and Intel, all intended for users of OS X version 10.5. Fink 0.8.1 (for OS X 10.4), 0.7.2 (for OS X 10.3), 0.6.4 (for OS X 10.2), and 0.4.1 (for OS X 10.1) also remain available.

10.5 Support: Users are encouraged to update to OS 10.5.2 or later, via Software Update, in order to get bugfixes and enhancements for X11. Further updates continue to be made available on the XQuartz Update Page.

Resources

If you're looking for support, check out the help page. That page also lists various options to help the project and submit feedback.

If you are looking for the source files which correspond to binaries distributed by the Fink project, please consult this page for instructions.

The Fink project is hosted by SourceForge. In addition to hosting this site and the downloads, SourceForge provides the following resources for the project:

Please note that to use some of these resources (ie, to report a bug or request a new Fink package), you will need to be logged in to your SourceForge account. If you do not have one, you can sign up for one for free on the SourceForge web site.

Additional resources hosted outside SourceForge include: