Fink

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This article is about the open source project. For other uses, see Fink (disambiguation).
Fink

Screenshot of Fink running in Terminal
Stable release binary distribution 0.9.0 / June 26, 2008 (2008-06-26)
Preview release source distribution 0.36.0 / October 30, 2013 (2013-10-30)
Development status Active
Written in Perl
Operating system Mac OS X
Type Package Management
License GNU General Public License
Website fink.sf.net
finkers.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/hosting-outage/

The Fink project is an effort to port and package open-source Unix programs to Mac OS X. Fink uses dpkg and APT (Debian's package management system), as well as its own frontend program, fink (which is implemented as a set of Perl modules).

Implementation

Fink features a binary distribution for quick and easy installation using APT, as well as a more extensive source distribution.[1] In addition to command-line tools for handling packages, the shareware app Phynchronicity provides a GUI.

Fink can be used to install newer versions of packages installed by Mac OS X or to install packages not included in Mac OS X. Fink stores all its data in the directory "/sw" by default (though this can be changed if initially compiling fink itself from source code). This goes against the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard's recommendation to use "/usr/local"; the reasons given in the Fink FAQ are that other installers might overwrite Fink's files under "/usr/local", and that having an entirely separate directory makes it easier to disable the binaries and libraries that Fink installs.[2] Within Fink's directory, a FHS-like layout (/sw/bin, /sw/include, /sw/lib, etc.) is used.

History

The Fink project was started in December 2000 by German hacker Christoph Pfisterer. The name Fink is German for finch and is a reference to the name of the Mac OS X core, Darwin; Charles Darwin's study of diversity among finches led him eventually to the concept of evolution.

Christoph Pfisterer left the project in November 2001.[3] Since then, several people have stepped in and picked up support for Fink. As of March 2008, the project is managed by 6 administrators, 89 developers, and a very active community. The Fink community released support for Mac OS X v10.4 on 18 February 2006, and for Mac OS X Leopard on the day it was released (26 October 2007). Fink is now available for OS X Mountain Lion.

See also

References

  1. ↑ See for example http://www.finkproject.org/faq/usage-fink.php question 5.7. The source distribution's package database is at http://pdb.finkproject.org/pdb/ and by examining the details of an individual package it is possible to see which versions of OS X are supported, and whether a binary version is available.
  2. ↑ "Fink - F.A.Q - General". Retrieved 2009-01-23. 
  3. ↑ Pfisterer, Christian. "Christoph Pfisterer resigns from the fink project.". Retrieved 2008-03-21. 

External links

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