Gentoo's Portage to be Ported to Mac OS X

billatq writes "I love Mac OS X, but I'm also a fan of running Gentoo Linux because of its powerful package management system. A Debian-style system (fink) is already on Mac OS X, but now it seems that Gentoo's Portage is going to be available for it. Gentoo's announcement can be found on their web site. I can't wait until we see what the Gentoo team has prepared."

Comments

Re:hmm

[Asprin]

It's a CLI package manager. You type 'emerge gnuchess' and portage goes out to the Gentoo server, finds the gnuchess source code package, downloads it, asks you some config questions, makes it (compiling from source using optimized compiler settings you've already set up) and installs it.

The advantage is that you get exactly what you ask for, compiled from the ORIGINAL SOURECE. Since you compiled it yourself, you can optimize the compiler to build for your specific platform only.

name of the thing

[akellens]

The thing is called iPortage.
A link to sourceforge:
iPortage

Re:name of the thing

[claude_juan]

actually, iPortage is a gui version. portage in its "normal" form is very much command line.

Re:hmm

[klmth]

The real advantage of portage is not that it installs and compiles gnuchess.
The greatest advantage is that is follows your guidelines for what features should be installed.
"Ssl support, you say? No problem! Next time I update the system, I'll be sure to update every app that has support for it!"

NetBSD pkgsrc

[LizardKing]

NetBSD's pkgsrc collection can be used on MacOS X from what I understand. It's a "compile from source" system much like Gentoos, and has about 3700 packages available.

Chris

Re:hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

Doesn't apt do that?

This is going to rock

[Znonymous Coward]

Mac OS X is lacking in it's UNIX core. Fink is ok and all, but it's not great (IMHO). This will help spur competition and drive both products to mature and grow on the Mac platform.

I've always been a Mac zelot, now I can be a Genoo zelot as well. Yea!

Re:This is going to rock

[IpalindromeI]

Here's what you're missing.

Search for a keyword, in the name or description:
apt-cache search keyword

Search just in the name:
apt-cache search --names-only keyword

Simulate what would happen without doing it:
apt-get -s install package
apt-get --no-act install package

The nice thing about apt is that it doesn't take a year to do a simple search and the package descriptions are actually useful, instead of one cryptic line.

Re:This is going to rock

[Thomas A. Anderson]

Search for a keyword, in the name or description:
apt-cache search keyword


Yeah, that would be kinda cool


Search just in the name:
apt-cache search --names-only keyword


qpkg keyword

qpkg is a program in the gentool package - flags include:
-v print available versions
-i print package information
-d print packages that have multiple versions ins
talled
-f find package that owns file
-l print package contents
and many more options

Simulate what would happen without doing it:
apt-get -s install package
apt-get --no-act install package


emerge -p package


The nice thing about apt is that it doesn't take a year to do a simple search and the package descriptions are actually useful, instead of one cryptic line.


Which distro are you talking about? I find that neither of those describe gentoo.

Listen, you are more than welcome to like debian/fink over gentoo/gentoo-ppc (or any other distro or even os). No skin off my nose.

But don't spread untruths about another distro - it serves no usefull purpose.

Re:hmm

[Goner]

"...asks you some config questions..."

No, it doesn't even do that. You specify them all through what are known as USE flags in a file called /etc/make.conf, as in gnuchess USEs opengl (or whatever, actually it doesn't depend on any USE flags). But portage can also do cool things like build straight from cvs repositories for apps like ardour that don't currently have even tarballs out. All of this is pretty darn well documented on the gentoo site, and I recommend people check it out. (Especially if you have tons of time on your hands ;))

Re:hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

No. Apt installs arre the packages that the requested binaries depend on. But if they maintainer didn't compile it with SSL support, you have to recompile it yourself (and possibly its dependencies). As a result, Debian typically builds their binaries with support for as many libraries and features as they can.

In Gentoo, you have a long list of all the kinds of support you want compiled in, and it builds the packages with those things compiled in, or out.

For example, I don't run KDE, and don't have QT support compiled into most packages. That was no additional work for me (and I have nothing against Qt per se, I just don't use it myself)

Re:hmm

[2nd Post!]

How is this different from fink?

sudo fink install orbit

It downloads the orbit source, compiles, and installs it.

Re:hmm

[zojas]

one clarification: portage asks you no questions. configure-time options are set via USE flags in your make.conf file. see the portage user guide and the USE flag guide.

no questions means you can type 'emerge kde' and come back later after it has installed possibly dozens of packages with no more input from you.

Nope

[finkployd]

Nope, Apt installs binaries. They are configured with library requirements when the package maintainer builds them, and you either like their options (which generally include every possible option....and dependancy) or you don't.

Finkployd