Mac OS X Panther for Unix Geeks, Second Edition

Using Fink

Once Fink has been installed, you can see what packages are available by entering the command fink list. You can install a package from source with the command fink install package.

The fink command is used from the command line to maintain, install, and uninstall packages from source. Table 11-1 lists some examples of its usage.

Table 11-1. Various fink commands

Command	Description
fink apropos foo	Lists packages matching the search keyword, foo.
fink build foo	Downloads and builds package foo. No installation is performed.
fink checksums	Verifies the integrity of source tarballs.
fink configure	Rerun the configuration process.
fink describe foo	Describes package foo.
fink fetch foo	Downloads package foo, but doesn’t install it.
fink fetch-all	Downloads source files for all available packages.
fink fetch-missing	Like fetch-all, but fetches only source code that’s not already present.
fink index	Forces a rebuild of the package cache.
fink install foo	Downloads source, then builds and installs package foo.
fink list	Lists available packages. “i” is placed next to installed packages. Takes many options. For example, fink list -i lists only installed packages. Execute fink list -help for a complete set of options.
fink purge foo	Same as remove but also removes all configuration files. Use apt-get remove instead.
fink rebuild foo	Downloads and rebuilds package foo. Installation is performed.
fink reinstall foo	Reinstalls ...