Fink Downloads

There are many ways to install or upgrade Fink. For new users, the quick start instructions below are recommended. Otherwise, check out the overview and the upgrade matrix.

Quick Start

New to Fink? These quick start instructions are here to get you up to speed with the binary release.

Download the installer disk image:
Fink 0.8.1 Binary Installer (PowerPC) - 17930 KB
Fink 0.8.1 Binary Installer (Intel) - 17510 KB
(10.3 users - use Fink 0.7.2)
(10.2 users - use Fink 0.6.4)
(10.1 users - use Fink 0.4.1)
Double-click "Fink-0.8.1-XYZ-Installer.dmg" (where XYZ is either PowerPC or Intel) to mount the disk image, then double-click the "Fink 0.8.1 XYZ Installer.pkg" package inside. Follow the instructions on screen.
At the end of the installation, the pathsetup utility will be launched. You will be asked for permission before your shell's configuration files are edited. When the utility has finished, you are set to go!
If anything goes wrong during this process, you can try again by launching the pathsetup application which appears on the installer disk, or by running (from the command line in a Terminal.app window)
```
/sw/bin/pathsetup.sh
```
(This step should also be repeated by any other users on your system: each user must run pathsetup in his or her own account.)
If pathsetup generates errors messages, consult the documentation, particularly section 2.3 "Setting Up Your Environment" of the User's Guide.
Open a new Terminal.app window and run the following: "fink scanpackages; fink index", or use the included Fink Commander GUI application (which must be placed in a real folder on your system, not run from the disk image) and run the following commands from its menu: Source->scanpackages followed by Source->Utilities->index.
Once those two commands are finished you should update the fink package, in case there have been significant changes since the last point release. After you do this you can install other packages. There are several ways to do this:
- Use the included Fink Commander to select and install packages. Fink Commander provides an easy to use GUI for Fink. This is the recommended method for new users, or users who are not comfortable with the command line. Fink Commander has Binary and Source menus. You should install from binaries if you don't have the Developer Tools installed, or don't want to build packages yourself.
  - The Fink Commander sequence to update fink from binaries is as follows:
    1. Binary->Update descriptions
    2. Select the fink package.
    3. Binary->Install
  - The recommended Fink Commander sequence to update fink from source is as follows:
    1. Source->Selfupdate
    2. Tools->Interact with Fink...
    3. Make sure "Accept default response" is selected, and click "Submit".
    4. fink and other base packages will be built and run automatically
  Now that you've updated fink, you can install other packages.
  - To install from binaries, select the package, and use Binary->Install.
  - To install from source, select the package, and use Source->Install
- Use apt-get. Apt-get will fetch and install binary packages for you, saving compiling time. You should either use this method or the Fink Commander binary method (above) if you don't have the Developer Tools installed.
  
  To update fink open a Terminal.app window and type sudo apt-get update ; sudo apt-get install fink
  
  Once you've updated fink, you can install other packages, using the same syntax, e.g sudo apt-get install gimp to install the Gimp. Note, however, that not all fink packages are in binary form.
- Install from source (requires the XCode Tools [Developer Tools on 10.2] to be installed). To update fink run fink selfupdate. When prompted, select option (1), "rsync". This will automatically update the fink package.
  
  Once fink is updated, you can use "fink install" to fetch and compile from source code. For example, to install the Gimp, run fink install gimp.

Additional Things to Install

XCode Tools/Developer Tools

You may find that only using binary packages limits the utility of Fink. There are fewer packages available in binary format than from source, and the binary versions are generally older. To build packages from source, you will need to install the Developer Tools (known as the XCode Tools for Mac OS 10.3 and later).

Although a Developer Tools/XCode Tools version usually comes with your OS install media, you'll probably want a newer one. Go to the Apple Developer Connection to download a newer version (and any updates) after free registration.

Recommended Developer Tools versions by OS
10.2	December 2002 Developer Tools and August 2003 `gcc3.3` updater
10.3	XCode 1.5 and the November 2004 `gcc3.3` updater
10.4 on PowerPC	XCode 2.2.1, and the XCode Legacy Tools (for packages that need `gcc3.1` or `gcc2.95` to build)
10.4 on Intel	XCode 2.2.1

X11

Almost all of the applications on Fink that have graphical user interfaces (GUIs) require some flavor of X11 (since most were originally developed on platforms that only had that as a GUI option).

Apple provides its own X11 distribution for OS 10.3 and 10.4. This is the easiest option with which to get started. They have elected to split it into two parts:

The X11User package contains everything you need just to run Apple's X11. It is available on your OS install media for 10.3 and 10.4 as an optional install.
The X11SDK package contains the development headers. You need this if you want to build anything from source that uses X11. This package is available as part of the XCode Tools, and installed by default with XCode 2.x.

Once you've installed X11 Fink should automatically register it. If you're having problems check out the FAQ entry on X11 installation problems

Further information

For more information, please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions and the documentation section. If your questions aren't answered by those documents, check out the help page.

To be informed of new releases, subscribe to the fink-announce mailinglist.

The source code for the packages in the installer disk image can be downloaded from this site, here.