Learning Unix for Mac OS X Tiger

Chapter 10. Open Source Software Via Fink

The Fink Project is a mechanism for obtaining, installing , and keeping up to date a wide variety of open source applications on your Macintosh. The project itself is made up of volunteers who are dedicated to bringing the best open source software to Mac OS X. They fine-tune these open source applications for the Mac OS X environment, and then keep the applications updated so they work with the latest release of Mac OS X.

Many of the programs featured in this chapter are available through Fink, as is a wealth of other applications.

Installing Fink

Since Fink does not come with Mac OS X, you’ll first need to download its disk image from http://fink.sourceforge.net/download. Once you’ve downloaded and mounted the disk image by double-clicking it, you’re ready to install Fink, with the following steps:

1. Open the mounted disk image in the Finder, and then double-click Fink’s Installer package (the Fink 0.7.7 Installer.pkgfile) inside.

2. Install the application, using all the default configuration options. You will need your administrative password to complete the task.

3. At the end of the installation process, Fink proposes adding a line to your .profilefile so Fink and its necessary programs are in your shell environment’s PATH. You should let it include the line suggested, as shown in Figure 10-1.

Figure 10-1. When you install Fink, it asks to modify your ...