New Fink Binary Distribution 0.5.2

dmalloc writes "The Fink Project community and contributors announced the availability of the Fink Binary Distribution 0.5.2, which adds binaries for KDE 3.1, Koffice 1.2.1, and Kdevelop 3.0a3, new documentation/manuals, and improved support for Apple's X11 Server along with speed improvements to fink itself. Download instructions are on the Fink site."

Comments

Re:Include More Info

[potuncle]

I'm no expert, but have found fink to be an awesome addition to OS X. It brings many (I think 5000+) software packages and apps from the UNIX/LINUX/BSD world to OS X. It can be a major selling point on OS X for UNIX/LINUX/BSD users. Now they can have the Aquaesqe goodness, along with the power and flexibility of UNIX/LINUX/BSD apps and libraries.

Don't use if your default shell is /bin/zsh

[Sniffer]

The init.sh script pukes with /bin/zsh as your shell....

Re:Don't use if your default shell is /bin/zsh

[rdieter]

you probably shouldn't be changing root's shell either.

Re:Don't use if your default shell is /bin/zsh

[rdieter]

Why?

Why ask why?

Seriously, there are many absolutely critical portions of the system that are simple (and not so simple) shell scripts, and these are only guaranteed/tested to work with the *default* shell. Messing with root's shell is only asking for trouble. Really.

Now, knowing this, if you still fell compelled to go and change it, by all means, go for it, but don't go complaining about things breaking as a result of your modification.

Re:Fink and Mcafee virus

[Anonymous Coward]

No, it's not fixed, and it's totally McAfee's fault. They have used Fink themselves in-house to create Virex 7.2's auto-update feature, however the way they've implemented it totally breaks both Fink and Virex.

This is not Fink's fault, and there is *nothing* they can do to fix it. Want to complain? E-mail McAfee.

Re:Fink and Mcafee virus

[pcp_ip]

virex and fink are fine now. download 7.2.1 from mac.com.

to fix a messed up fink from 7.2 just:

fink reinstall openssl-shlibs dlcompat-shlibs curl-ssl-shlibs

and you're set to go.

Upgrade Instructions

[Anonymous Coward]

The link in the story is about how to download fink for your first time, not upgrade. If, like most people, you have a mix of binary (ie from apt-get) and source (ie from fink) packages in your fink distro, you'll want to do the following:

sudo apt-get update # new package descriptions
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade # download and install binaries (this takes a long time)
fink selfupdate # update fink itself
fink update-all # download, compile, and install source packages

If you have trouble, a fink index or fink scanpackages command can help out sometimes. The Upgrade Matrix or Upgrade page in the manual would have been better links for the slashdot article, imho.

avalys: If we're going to make Slashdot into Freshmeat (which is fine with me, to a point), submitters should at least include information on what the program actually does!

C'mon, now, thats not fair. Fink is more than just another program; it's a whole software distro. If they can announce new versions of debian and redhat, they can announce new versions of fink. This announcement really means new versions of hundreds of programs.

Re:Fink and Mcafee virus

[wtmcgee]

http://fink.sourceforge.net/news/

2003-04-16: Virex problem resolved

McAfee has released Virex 7.2.1, which no longer overwrites the main Fink directory /sw. Fink users should continue to avoid Virex 7.2.

Early reports indicate that upgrading Virex from 7.2 to 7.2.1 still leaves some problems however. If you upgrade Virex with Fink not installed, and subsequently wish to install Fink, you will need to delete the /sw directory by hand before installing. And if you upgrade Virex with Fink already installed, you should immediately run

fink reinstall openssl-shlibs dlcompat-shlibs curl-ssl-shlibs

to restore files which the Virex upgrade has deleted.

Re:FIXED!

[bursch-X]

Today Apple posted a link to an update for Virex on the .Mac site. Everything works fine now here!