Audience
Professional users in need of a solution to modify Unix software so that it compiles and runs on Mac
About 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. The project offers precompiled binary packages as well as a fully automated build-from-source system. Mac OS X includes only a basic set of command-line tools. Fink brings you enhancements for these tools as well as a selection of graphical applications developed for Linux and other Unix variants. With Fink the compile process is fully automated; you'll never have to worry about Makefiles or configure scripts and their parameters again. The dependency system automatically takes care that all required libraries are present.
Other Popular Alternatives & Related Software
Rudix
Rudix is a build system target on macOS (formerly known as Mac OS X) with minor support to OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and Linux. The build system (also called "ports") provides step-by-step instructions for building third-party software, entirely from source code. Rudix provides more than a pure ports framework, it comes with packages, and precompiled software bundled up in a nice format (files *.pkg) for easy installation on your Mac. If you want to collaborate on the project, visit us at GitHub/rudix-mac or at our mirror at GitLab/rudix. Use the GitHub issue tracker to submit bugs or request features. Similar projects or alternatives to Rudix are Fink, MacPorts, pkgsrc, and Homebrew. Packages are compiled and tested on macOS Big Sur (Version 11, Intel only!), Catalina (Version 10.15) and OS X El Capitan (Version 10.11). Every package is self-contained and has everything it needs to work. The binaries, libraries, and documentation will be installed under /usr/local/.
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pkgsrc
pkgsrc is a framework for managing third-party software on UNIX-like systems, currently containing over 17,900 packages. It is the default package manager of NetBSD and SmartOS and can be used to enable freely available software to be built easily on a large number of other UNIX-like platforms. The binary packages that are produced by pkgsrc can be used without having to compile anything from the source. It can be easily used to complement the software on an existing system. pkgsrc is very versatile and configurable, supporting building packages for an arbitrary installation prefix, allowing multiple branches to coexist on one machine, a build options framework, and a compiler transformation framework, among other advanced features. Unprivileged use and installation are also supported. NetBSD already contains the necessary tools for using pkgsrc; on other platforms, you need to bootstrap pkgsrc to get the package management tools installed.
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Cargo
Cargo is the Rust package manager. Cargo downloads your Rust package's dependencies, compiles your packages, makes distributable packages, and uploads them to crates.io, the Rust community’s package registry. You can contribute to this book on GitHub. To get started with Cargo, install Cargo (and Rust) and set up your first crate. The commands will let you interact with Cargo using its command-line interface. A Rust crate is either a library or an executable program, referred to as either a library crate or a binary crate, respectively. Loosely, the term crate may refer to either the source code of the target or to the compiled artifact that the target produces. It may also refer to a compressed package fetched from a registry. Your crates can depend on other libraries from crates.io or other registries, git repositories, or subdirectories on your local file system. You can also temporarily override the location of a dependency.
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Synaptic
Synaptic is a graphical package management program for apt. It provides the same features as the apt-get command-line utility with a GUI front-end based on Gtk+. Install, remove, upgrade and downgrade single and multiple packages. Upgrade your whole system. Manage package repositories (sources.list). Find packages by name, description, and several other attributes. Select packages by status, section, name, or a custom filter. Sort packages by name, status, size, or version. Browse all available online documentation related to a package. Download the latest changelog of a package. Lock packages to the current version. Force the installation of a specific package version. Undo/Redo selections. Built-in terminal emulator for the package manager. Debian/Ubuntu only, configure packages through the debconf system. Debian/Ubuntu only, Xapain-based fast search (thanks to Enrico Zini).
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Pricing
Starting Price:
Free
Free Version:
Free Version available.
Integrations
Company Information
Fink
www.finkproject.org
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Product Details
Platforms Supported
Mac
Training
Documentation
Support
Online
