13.2. Using Fink

13.1. Installing Fink

You can install Fink from binary, from a source tarball, or from source in CVS.

13.1.1. Installing Fink from a Disk Image

The binary installation involves the following steps:

1. Download the binary installer disk image (a .dmg file) from http://fink.sourceforge.net/download.

2. The disk image should mount automatically and show up in the Finder's Sidebar. If the disk image does not mount after it has downloaded, locate and double-click the .dmg file to mount the disk image.

3. Open the mounted disk image and double-click the Fink Installer package inside. At the time of this writing, the name of the Installer package was Fink 0.7.1 Installer.pkg.

4. Follow the instructions on the screen.

5. As Fink installs, it will launch the Terminal application and check to see whether you have a .profile file in your Home directory. If you don't, Fink will ask you if you want it to create one and add the . /sw/bin/init.sh line to it. At the prompt, type in a Y and hit Return to create this file. After .profile is created, Fink automatically logs you out of the Terminal session; you will need to close the Terminal window with -W.

After Fink has completed its installation, unmount the disk image and drag the .dmg file to the Trash.

The disk image also includes FinkCommander, a graphical frontend to using Fink. For more information, see the "FinkCommander" section, later in this chapter.

13.1.2. Installing Fink from Source

To install the latest release of Fink from source, perform the following steps:

1. Open http://fink.sourceforge.net/download/srcdist.php in your browser. After you select the link for the tarball, you must choose a mirror site from which to download the tarball. If your web browser downloads this file to your Desktop, move it to a working directory, such as /tmp:

        $ mv ~/Desktop/fink-0.7.1-full.tar.gz /tmp/

   
   

   

   If your browser automatically turned StuffIt loose on it, you may be left with a tar file and a directory. If this is the case, you will have to mv the fink-0.7.1-full.tar instead of the .gz file.

   
   

2. Extract the archive:

        $ gnutar xzf fink-0.7.1-full.tar.gz

   
   

3. Change into the top-level directory and run the bootstrap script:

        $ cd fink-0.7.1-full     $ ./bootstrap.sh

   
   

4. Follow the instructions on the screen.

13.1.3. Installing Fink from CVS

You can also install the latest version source of Fink via CVS:

1. Change to a temporary directory (not containing a subdirectory named fink). Log into the Fink CVS server. When prompted for a password press, press Return to enter an empty password:

        $ cd /tmp     $ cvs -d :pserver:[e-mail]:/cvsroot/fink login

   
   

2. Download the package descriptions:

        $ cvs -d :pserver:[e-mail]:/cvsroot/fink \       co fink

   
   

3. Change to the fink subdirectory and run the bootstrap script to install and configure Fink:

        $ cd fink     $ ./bootstrap.sh

   
   

4. Follow the instructions on the screen.

Fink must be installed and run with superuser privileges whenever you use it to install, uninstall, or update packages. Whether you install and configure Fink from the downloaded tarball or from CVS, the bootstrap.sh script will prompt you to configure Fink to be run with sudo, su, or root. If you choose the default sudo, you won't have to invoke fink explicitly with sudo. Instead, you'll automatically be prompted for your administrative password.

13.1.4. Post-Installation Setup

When you install Fink, it should configure your shell initialization files to call either /sw/bin/init.sh (sh, bash, and similar shells) or /sw/bin/init.csh (csh or tcsh). If not, or if you need to configure Fink for another user, open a Terminal window and run the command /sw/bin/pathsetup.command. When that's finished, you should close the Terminal window and open a new one to begin using Fink.

Fink can later be updated by entering the commands:

     fink selfupdate     fink update-all 

The first command updates Fink itself, including the list and descriptions of available packages, while the second command updates any installed packages. The first time you run selfupdate, Fink will prompt you to choose whether to use rsync (faster, less bandwidth), CVS, or to "Stick to point releases":

     $ fink selfupdate     sudo /sw/bin/fink  selfupdate     Password: ********     fink needs you to choose a SelfUpdateMethod.     (1)      rsync     (2)      cvs     (3)      Stick to point releases     Choose an update method [1] 1     I will now run the rsync command to retrieve the latest package     descriptions. 

The last option means that you'll stay away from the bleeding edge: Fink will be more stable, but you may not get the latest and greatest versions of applications. You can change the selfupdate method to CVS by using the command fink selfupdate-cvs. You can switch back to using rsync with fink selfupdate-rsync.