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2006-08-19: Server down; workarounds available-

Update: 21 August 2006: The server has been restored.

The server which hosts four important fink services (the rsync update, the binary distribution, the "master mirror" of source files, and the package database) is down at the moment. We are hoping that the server will be restored as early as Monday, August 21, but are providing these workarounds for use during the period of outage.

To update fink, you must either select an rsync mirror other than the primary one (see the next paragraph), or use the command fink selfupdate-cvs. You only need to give this command once; subsequent updates will continue to be performed using CVS. When the server is restored, you can revert to rsync updating by means of the command fink selfupdate-rsync.

To work around the lack of the binary distribution, and the "master mirror" of source files, run the command fink configure. You should accept the default answers to all of the questions, except the following: when asked "Should Fink try to download pre-compiled packages from the binary distribution if available?" answer "no" (to disable the binary distribution); when asked if you want to change the mirror settings, answer "yes", and then you will be asked "What mirror order should fink use when downloading sources?". The answer is "2: Search Master Mirrors last" (to disable the automatic attempts to use the master mirror server). Finally, if you have decided to stick with rsync for updates, when asked to "Choose a mirror for 'RSync SelfUpdate'" you should choose one other than rsync://master.us.finkmirrors.net/finkinfo/. Unfortunately, other choices might not be available to you if you are in the U.S.

Finally, to use the package database during the outage, you can connect to this backup copy of the package database which is a few weeks out of date.

2006-07-24: Reminder: "10.4-transitional" Tree Unsupported on August 1st, 2006-

The "10.4-transitional" tree was created as an interim solution to the issues of incompatibilities between binaries made using GCC 3.3 (the default Mac OS X 10.3 compiler) and GCC 4.0 (the default Mac OS X 10.4 compiler). Now that the work to move Fink to using GCC 4.0 is essentially finished, we will be stopping official support of the "10.4-transitional" tree in favor of the "10.4" tree as of August 1st, 2006.

You should not need to do anything if "fink --version" prints "0.8.1.cvs" or "0.8.1.rsync".

As we mentioned previously, there are 2 ways to make the switch to the supported "10.4" tree.

The simplest way is to remove your Fink installation by deleting it and installing fresh using the 0.8.1 installer available from the download page.

Alternately, to preserve your Fink installation, download the upgrade script and read the README for instructions on how to upgrade your existing installation in-place. This will re-build your Fink installation from source, upgrading everything in the process. Be warned, it can take a lot of time, depending on your fink installation!

Feedback on the upgrade script has been very positive; many users have already made the switch. If you have problems, please feel free to mail your issues to the discussion lists.

2006-07-24: Fink Birds-of-a-Feather at OSCON 2006-

Are you at OSCON 2006? Want to meet up?

Benjamin Reed (RangerRick on #fink) is at OSCON and is interested in meeting anyone who wants to hang out and talk about Fink, or even just meet for the heck of it.

Meet us in room F150 on Wednesday, July 26th at 8:30pm and we'll talk about Fink, Mac OS X, and anything else that takes our fancy.

2006-07-01: July is "Fink Update Month"-

Fink users on PowerPC machines are advised to update their copies of fink from the old "10.4-transitional" tree to the more recent "10.4" tree. We plan to discontinue the 10.4-transitional tree by the end of July, 2006.

Some background: along with OS X 10.4 came a new version of the g++ compiler (one of the workhorses of Fink), which produced code that was binary incompatible with previous versions. Fink, when using the 10.4-transitional tree, mixes the new gcc-4.0 compiler with the older g++-3.3 compiler. This strategy gave us some extra time to make packages compatible with g++-4.0. The time has now come to complete that transition, and rely exclusively on the newer tree. The update, however, is slightly complicated since all packages using or providing g++ libraries must be rebuilt in the correct order.

If you are using OS X 10.4, you can find out if you need to update your Fink installation by running the command fink --version. If the Distribution version is 0.8.1.cvs or 0.8.1.rsync, you do not need to update. However, if the Distribution version is 0.8.0.cvs or 0.8.0.rsync, you should update, as described below.

Many users will prefer to remove their fink installations and start anew with the 0.8.1 installer. Others will prefer to use the 10.4-update tarball (v. 0.4) (around 12 MB), which includes precompiled versions of the basic fink packages as well as a script which will attempt to update an existing fink installation. Please consult the README file which you will find within the 10.4-update directory (after unpacking the tarball) for further instructions.

Note: Fink users who are upgrading their systems from OS X 10.3 to OS X 10.4 can use the same two options to update their fink installations: they can either remove their old fink installations and start over, or they can use the same 10.4-update tarball. The update script should not be run until after OS X has been upgraded.

2006-06-15: New Fink release.-

A new Fink release for OS X 10.4 (Tiger) is available today: version 0.8.1, which can be installed on either Intel or PowerPC hardware. The release includes source files, binary packages, and Fink installers for both kinds of hardware.

Fink on the Intel platform is still considered "beta" quality, and a number of packages (particularly packages in the "unstable" tree) either do not compile, or compile but do not run. Work to improve this situation is ongoing.

Fink users on PowerPC whose existing fink installation uses the 10.4-transitional tree (from the 0.8.0 distribution) may upgrade in one of two ways. The upgrade process is problematic, due to the change in ABI of g++ libraries which requires many libraries to be recompiled. Many users will simply wish to remove their fink installations and start anew with the 0.8.1 installer. Others may wish to use the new 10.4-update tarball (v. 0.3) (around 12 MB), which includes precompiled versions of the basic fink packages as well as a script which will attempt to update an existing fink installation.

2006-05-10: CVS Troubles-

As many Fink users are aware, the Fink CVS repository at sourceforge.net has not been fully functional since March 30. The anonymous CVS access has not been updated since then, and as of several days ago, the developers are also unable to update CVS in any form.

As we understand the current plans of sourceforge's staff (outlined briefly on their site status page), the old CVS servers will never be brought back in their current form. This is likely to mean disruption for fink users, but at present, we cannot say what form this disruption will take.

Our current advice to fink users is to switch to the 'rsync' method of updating (by running the command 'fink selfupdate-rsync'). This will at least give you a fink installation which is current up through May 7. If a full update to the new CVS situation turns out to be impossible via fink's normal selfupdate command, we will post instructions here on how to update when they become available.

Update 5/24/06: CVS is now functioning again, and users using the rsync method of selfupdating are getting up-to-date content. If you are using the cvs method, and can't (or don't wish to) switch to rsync, you should download the file fink-mirrors-0.24.15.2.tar.gz from the Sourceforge file release page, expand the file, and run the command ./inject.pl from within the fink-mirrors-0.24.15.2 directory. After this has been done, the fink selfupdate command should again work normally.

2006-03-03: Problem with Apple's Security Update 2006-001-

The Fink team has received reports of problems with the rsync program which was modified by Apple's new Security Update 2006-001: for some users, fink selfupdate fails to function after the Security Update. (The underlying cause appears to be a problem with the --delete option for rsync.)

As a workaround, users can run fink install rsync to use fink's rsync package rather than the Apple program. Or, for those users who need specific features of the Apple program (such as support for Extended Attributes), another workaround is fink selfupdate-cvs to switch from rsync to cvs updating.

Update 3/13/06: This has been resolved by security update 2006-002, according to Apple's documentation.

2006-02-21: Preliminary version of Fink on Intel-

A preliminary version of Fink for the Intel architecture is now ready. No binary packages are available, and things are still rough around the edges, but it should be usable if you are patient!

To install it, you need to install the XCode compiler and SDK packages (at minimum). Then you need to get the file fink-0.24.16.tar.gz (or a later version, if it's available) from the Sourceforge file release page for Fink, expand the file, and run the command ./bootstrap.sh . At the end of the bootstrap process, run fink selfupdate and you'll get the currently available packages.

At last check, there were about 1750 packages in the "stable" tree, but about 150 of those did not build. When things are truly stable, another annoucement will be made here.

2006-01-10: Fink ready for XCode 2.2 (but not for Intel).-

Fink is now ready for XCode 2.2, with the exception of the openoffice.org packages (which are expected to function again when we switch to the 10.4 tree). Users are encouraged to upgrade to XCode 2.2 whenever they wish; XCode 2.2 will be required for running the 10.4 tree when it is released.

On the other hand, in spite of today's announcements from Apple, Fink is not ready to run on Intel processors. The Fink team hopes to have an Intel-ready version of fink released within a few weeks; the Fink team does not advise early recipients of new iMacs to install Fink on them, but suggests waiting until the new version of fink is ready.

Fink package maintainers please take note of the new Architecture field, now documented in the packaging manual.

2005-11-16: XCode 2.2 (10.4 only).-

The Fink team has had reports of some build problems with the XCode 2.2 compilers. Until these are sorted out, we recommend that users hold off on upgrading XCode.

For those who have already installed XCode 2.2 and don't want to revert to 2.1, your participation in the effort to find packages that don't work and to fix them so that they do is welcomed!

2005-06-09: New Fink releases.-

Three new Fink releases are available today: version 0.8.0 (for 10.4), version 0.7.2 (for 10.3), and version 0.6.4 (for 10.2). All three releases include source files, binary packages, and a Fink installer for new users.

The new release for 10.4 includes all currently-available "stable" packages in source and binary form: there are 1565 of these, which constitutes more than 80% of the 1909 packages available in the 10.3 release. Work continues by the fink developers on bringing more of the stable packages to Tiger.

The new release for 10.2 will be the last official release for that version of Mac OS X. Although no further updates (not even security updates) will be provided by the Fink team, we anticipate that the 0.6.4 release will be usable for years to come.

Users upgrading to 10.4 can now simply issue a fink selfupdate command, followed by sudo /sw/lib/fink/postinstall.pl (for first-time updaters on 10.4), fink scanpackages and sudo apt-get update. We don't recommend bootstrapping at the moment, since bootstrapping does not work with the newly-released XCode 2.1 from Apple.

Note added 6/19/05: If the Fink-0.8.0 binary installer complains that the volume does not support symlinks, try launching Disk Utility (from the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder), selecting the problematic volume and clicking on "repair disk permissions." Also, the installer requires you to have administrative privileges, so be sure that you're running it as such a user.

Note added 6/30/05: To avoid contamination with obsolete headers and the like, we recommend that people who want to build packages from source should perform a clean install of XCode via running the /Developer/Tools/uninstall-devtools.pl script. For best results, you may want to do this before updating your OS.

2005-04-29: Fink and Tiger.-

Fink can be used on OS X 10.4! There are several ways you can update:

Not all packages are working yet under 10.4, but that situation will improve over the next several weeks. The stable tree contains substantially fewer packages than in 10.3, but all of them should compile.

Of course, some wrinkles still need to be ironed out. We encourage users with mission-critical applications to check in on the mailing lists to verify whether anyone has had experience with the package in question before upgrading.

2004-11-20: Solution to gcc problems.-

Apple has released the November 2004 gcc3 updater, available (upon free registration) at connect.apple.com. This updater fixes the problems with the gcc3 compiler in XCode 1.5. If you are using XCode 1.5, you should install this updater. (The updater will update correctly for users with an untouched XCode 1.5, and also for users who installed the workaround which the fink project had previously recommended.)

We would like to thank Apple for responding to our reports about this matter, and working to resolve it as quickly as possible.

2004-10-15: Workaround for gcc problems.-

The version of gcc included with XCode 1.5 is known to produce incorrect output from c++ code under certain circumstances. Fink now has a mechanism to warn users about this, and Fink will soon refuse to use the "broken" gcc to compile packages which are known to have this problem.

If you have already upgraded XCode to version 1.5, there is a workaround, described here and here .

If you have not yet upgraded, you should consider remaining with XCode version 1.2 until the problem has been resolved.

2004-09-20: Fink 0.7.1 released.-

The latest Fink release, version 0.7.1 (for 10.3), is now available for both source and binary users. This release is meant for Panther (10.3) based Mac OS X versions. The 0.6.3 release remains available for Jaguar (10.2) based Mac OS X versions.

This new release incorporates various fixes to the package manager, and many previously unavailable binary packages have been added resulting in a total of 1650 binary packages. This includes binaries for KDE 3.1.4 and GNOME 2.4.

To complete a new Fink installation you should follow the instructions posted here. You may upgrade your existing Fink to the latest Fink using your current installation. A full list of the differences between 0.7.0 and 0.7.1 can be viewed by visiting this page.

If you have questions or problems, please try the Fink mailing lists. You can learn more about them here.

Please make sure you pick the appropriate installer for your platform. Fink 0.6.3 will only install on Mac OS X 10.2.*, while Fink 0.7.1 will only install on Mac OS X 10.3.*

The Fink Team would like to thank its many contributors, frequent helpers and developers for making this release happen. We also thank our community for downloading the prior release 0.7.0 more than 130,000 times. Without their constant support and valuable pointers, Fink would not be where we are now.

2004-08-23: Problems with XCode 1.5-

In the past few days, there have been reports that some fink packages do not compile correctly using XCode 1.5. If you have not already upgraded to XCode 1.5, we suggest that you wait until this issue is resolved before doing so.

If you are having problems with a package which compiled under XCode 1.2 but does not compile correctly under XCode 1.5, please report the package to the fink-devel mailing list. (The usual symptom is: some symbols are missing after compiling with g++.) Packages already known to have this problem include octave, singular-factory, singular-libfac, and possibly sdl.

2004-08-21: Error in fink-0.22.0-

The fink-0.22.0 package manager, which was available briefly in the unstable tree this past week, had a bug which prevents further updating via rsync. If you installed this version of fink, you can recover by running the command fink install fink-0.21.2-1 which will downgrade fink to the version in the stable tree, and subsequently running fink selfupdate

If for any reason those commands don't work, go to the fink file release page at sourceforge and download the file fink-0.22.1.tar.gz (or a more recent, i.e., higher numbered, version). Unpack this file with tar xfz fink-0.22.1.tar.gz , and then from within the fink-0.22.1 directory, run the command ./inject.pl

The fink team apologizes for the error, and thanks the user community for bringing it to our attention quickly.

2004-08-01: Improving our mirrors. Can you help?-

Fink's decision to gradually build its own network of mirrors has paid off. To make sure that we can continue to offer a high quality service we need to improve our mirror network. It has been some time since we last asked for more mirrors. It is time to do so again. Fink is very grateful for the resources granted to us by our community. To further improve our service to the community we require an even better mirror system. We especially lack mirrors in central Europe, Russia and the Far East. If you feel that you have at least two Mbit to spare for a rsync mirror, or more to offer a distfiles mirror, please contact us.

To get a better understanding of the different types of mirrors Fink offers, please review finkmirrors.net. This is the official homepage for all mirror related issues. If you feel that you can offer other types of resources, web-space for testing as an example, please do not hesitate in contacting us as well.

2004-04-06: Fink 0.6.3 and 0.7.0 released.-

The latest Fink releases, version 0.6.3 (for 10.2) and 0.7.0 (for 10.3), are now available for both source and binary users. The 0.6.3 release has been built on 10.2, while release 0.7.0 has been built on 10.3. This should facilitate better support for the different platforms.

These new releases incorporate various fixes to the package manager, many previously unavailable binary packages have been added and problematic packages for 10.3 users have been rebuilt.

To complete a new Fink installation you should follow the instructions posted here. You may upgrade your existing Fink installation to the latest Fink release by following the instructions posted here. If you have questions or problems, please try the Fink mailing lists you can learn more about them here.

Please make sure you pick the appropriate installer for your Platform. Fink 0.6.3 will only install on Mac OS X 10.2.* while Fink 0.7.0 will only install on Mac OS X 10.3.*

The Fink Team would like to thank its many contributors, frequent helpers and developers for making this release happen. We also thank our community, without their constant support and valuable pointers Fink would not be where we are now..

2004-02-19: Raise your Flag.-

Thanks to Baba Yoshihiko, Fink has now taken the necessary steps to allow for internationalisation efforts. The improved infrastructure enables us to display a multilingual web-site to our visitors from all over the world.

This also means that we need volunteers. The Fink web-site needs to be translated into the language of your choice. A translation into Japanese is being worked on and the translation into French has been taken over by Michele Garoche. Which language are you willing to translate?

If you are willing to become a member of the internationalisation team or wish to provide feedback on the web-site feel free to join the new mailing-list. You can do so by going to our mailing-lists page. The full announcement on the existing mailing lists can be read here.

2004-02-02: Java 1.4.2 Update Removes Java SDK-

If you previously had Java 1.4.1 and the Java SDK installed, the new Java 1.4.2 update from apple will upgrade the Java runtime to 1.4.2, but will remove the previous 1.4.1 Java runtime and SDK without upgrading the JDK. To build Java packages in Fink you will need to go to connect.apple.com and download the Java 1.4.2 SDK (free registration required).

2004-01-18: 10.3 binaries updated-

Many of the binary files for 10.3 have been updated, eliminating problems with qt and kde, among others. To access the updated files, bring your index of binary files up-to-date by running the command sudo apt-get update . After this, you can use apt-get, dselect or FinkCommander to install binary files as usual.

2004-01-10: Pssst want to install GNOME 2.4?-

Thanks to the new Fink GNOME Core team, including a lot of hard work by packaging newcomer Keith Conger and GNOME 1.x maintainer Masanori Sekino, GNOME 2.4 has finally been released to the 10.3 unstable tree.

It is there for the taking; please offer some of your time and test these packages if you are on unstable already. Because of the massive number of changes, it is expected that there will be issues upgrading or installing the new GNOME. If you have problems, you can reach the GNOME-savvy people at fink-gnome-core@lists.sourceforge.net. Please do report success stories there as well. The more good reports we get, the faster GNOME 2.4 can be moved to stable.

For those of you who do not read our mailing lists, why aren't you subscribed yet? Here is a link to detailed instructions how to install or upgrade GNOME and what new stuff it brings.

2004-01-02: Whaaazaaap Dawgs, Two Zero Zero Four is on!-

A happy new year to all of you from the whole team. Blame this outburst of an attempt at slang language on some of us having to watch the MTV Music Awards all day long.

Last year has been a good year for Fink. We have had hard times keeping up with the changes introduces by Apple, but we also learned that we have a great community which is willing to go through great lengths to support us. For this, we say "Thank You". Much of what happens in the Fink project happens because of the amazing support and encouragement we get from our users.

Two Zero Zero Four should not make us slow down, but speed up. There are some interesting things in the pipeline, including GNOME 2.4, a new release of KDE, major changes to the package manager itself, and organisational restructuring. Hopefully we will advance into an even bigger project with developer conferences, real life meetings, and a CD in your favourite shop.

High ambitions can make one fall very deeply, thus we shall take it carefully, but still we are all counting on your support during this year. Tell us what you think about Fink; tell us what you like or dislike; show us ways to improve ourselves. Lend us your resources and sponsor a mirror or hardware. Devote some of your time to improve the package manager or add another piece of software by creating an info file. Browse this website and hopefully indulge yourself. We enjoy serving such a nice community; hopefully we shall make it a smooth ride for you and your Macintosh in Two Zero Zero Four.

2003-12-28: Merry Christmas and a happy new year-

The Fink team and I wish all of you a merry Christmas and happy Holidays. We are looking forward to yet another year where we can help the Macintosh community grow into the world of UNIX together with Mac OS X.

We wish you all, that your hope is not too frail and that you will carry on following through with your wishes. May the world we live in gradually become a better place and may peace and understanding settle just for a few days.

Enjoy your quiet time and in case we do not get around to saying it soon enough. A happy new year to all of you, stay with us we count on your support.

2003-11-30: There they are! New mirrors..-

Thank you, thank you, thank you. What a great community we have. Thank you for providing us with more mirrors.

Matthew Healey, member of the Western Australian Macintosh User Group, and their ISP extremedsl are providing Fink with a full mirror in Perth, Australia. This is our first mirror in down under, thus I am pleased to welcome them to the family. Furthermore the UKMIRROR service has accepted us, making distfile services available for Fink on 21 load balanced server.

We are very happy about this development, but we still need more rsync mirrors. Thus, once more, if you feel like helping, please visit finkmirrors.net and get in touch.

2003-11-24: More mirrors....pretty please?-

While we welcome our latest full mirror in Norway, sponsored by Havar Valeur, we crave more. To improve our service to all of you, we would like to ask that you evaluate carefully if you maybe do have the resources to become a mirror.

All it takes is a 10Mbit link, around 100MB of disk space and some bandwidth you are willing to share for Fink. The exact setup instructions for rsync mirrors can be found here. Especially mirrors in Asia, Australia, New Zealand, South Europe and Middle Europe are welcome, since we have none in those regions yet. If you feel generous and wish to donate even more resources, please visit finkmirrors.net to learn about your options.

The current status of all available rsync mirrors can be viewed on the finkmirrors.net pages as well. We hope to improve this service in the future, yet this depends on your willingness to help us out. We are looking forward to many new applications and thank our community in advance.

2003-11-17: Fink 0.6.2 released-

The latest Fink release, version 0.6.2, is now available for both source and binary users. This is a bug-fix release, intended to address two problems: the dselect/user deletion bug, and a problem with ownership of files. The dselect bug was addressed by updating the fink, dpkg, and apt packages. After updating to 0.6.2, it is safe to once again use dselect. However, if you ran dselect at any time since 0.6.0, you should carefully check the integrity of the file at /sw/etc/apt/sources.list. If you have any doubts about this file, you should replace it with the default sources.list file.

Users who have installed binary files from the 0.6.1 distribution may find that certain files in their Fink installation are owned by UID 2011 rather than by root. To correct this problem, run the command:

sudo find /sw/ -user 2011 -exec chown root:admin {} \;

This release, like the previous one, was built on OS X 10.2 using the gcc 3.3 compiler, and runs fine with some exceptions* on OS X 10.3. Most Fink users who upgrade to 10.3 will continue to want to only use the binaries from this new distribution for now, while the Fink team continues to modify Fink packages for 10.3.

*Exceptions include: emacs, qt.

2003-11-04: User Deletion Bug/ Dselect Troubles-

Quick Summary: DO NOT USE DSELECT, and if you've used it, check your /sw/etc/apt/sources.list file carefully.

Users who have bootstrapped or installed Fink 0.5.3 or Fink 0.6.0 on Mac OS X 10.3 could exhibit a problem where all users get deleted from the netinfo database, and you become unable to log in. We believe that this problem can only occur if you've used dselect.

If you are using Mac OS X 10.3, please be sure you're using the latest Fink version to avoid the issue. To make sure you don't have upgrade problems, check your /sw/etc/apt/sources.list file. You will need to modify it if it contains deb lines that point to "release" or "current" without a version number. In other words, if your sources.list file contains these lines:

deb http://us.dl.sourceforge.net/fink/direct_download release main
deb http://us.dl.sourceforge.net/fink/direct_download current main

...you should change them to this:

deb http://us.dl.sourceforge.net/fink/direct_download 10.3/release main
deb http://us.dl.sourceforge.net/fink/direct_download 10.3/current main

We are working on updating the repository to make sure that even if you update you don't get the broken code, and to repair dselect, but in the meantime, make sure your sources.list file has the correct entries.

Other users have experienced problems with dselect itself, particularly complaints about a missing "darwin" package. If you are running dselect under 10.3 and you don't get this warning, then your sources.list file is likely to be corrupted and you should repair it as above.

2003-11-01: Fink 0.6.1 released-

The latest Fink release, version 0.6.1, is now available for both source and binary users. This release was built on OS X 10.2 using the gcc 3.3 compiler, and runs well on OS X 10.3. Most Fink users who upgrade to 10.3 will want to only use the binaries from this new distribution for now, while the Fink team continues to modify Fink packages for 10.3.

If you wish to access the new binaries, use apt-get, dselect, or the binary mode of FinkCommander. Unless you are interested in helping the Fink team to test packages which are compiled on 10.3, do not use the command-line fink program to do your installations for the next few weeks.

The simplest way to upgrade a binary installation is to run "sudo apt-get update". Further details and other issues related to upgrading Fink to 10.3 are addressed on the Special 10.3 upgrade page.

Before using the latest version of the command-line fink program under OS X 10.2, be sure to install the August2003gccUpdater, available after free registration from connect.apple.com.

2003-10-31: Happy Halloween and welcome new mirrors-

We wish all of you a happy Halloween.

Furthermore I would like to welcome our new mirrors to the Fink family. From Europe in Rijeka, Croatia a new full mirror joins us. This mirrors has been sponsored by the Jabucnjak Apple user group. This is our first mirror in Europe, so I hope that more will be joining us soon.

Dave Schroeder from the University of Wisconsin in Madison is sponsoring a 100Mbit dedicated Master server. A. J. Wright and SunSITE@UTK are helping out with another full mirror in the United states.

This raises our full mirror count to four and the rsync mirror count to five. We are happy to have such a great community back us up, but I know that more mirrors will join over time. I will not stop nagging you until Fink has its own mirror in every state of the USA. Yet, with such a brilliant community backing us up, I am not too worried about not reaching my goal very soon.

Trick or treat! Our most wanted treat is more mirrors, so come forth Administrators and fill our bag. Information on how you can be a mirror can be found on the official mirroring website.

2003-10-25: Look Ma, a logo for Fink-

As you surely noticed, Fink has a logo. This is the result of our Logo contest held earlier this year. This new, official, logo has been displayed since the 24th of October and those of you who wondered how it has been picked and what the name of the winner is should read up in the PR section.

The longer explanation also features a larger version of the logo itself, so that you may have a closer look at its details. We like our new logo, we hope that you will like it too.

IMPORTANT: We do not yet have a formal licensing agreement for the new logo and so are unable to give permission to distribute it. Currently, it can only be displayed on the Fink web page. Thank you for your understanding.

2003-10-24: Upgrade to gcc 3.3 and/or 10.3-

It is now possible to upgrade Fink to take full advantage of the gcc 3.3 compiler, or to use OS X 10.3 if you have that installed. Binary packages corresponding to these upgrades are not yet available, so if you make extensive use of binary packages you may wish to wait a few days before upgrading.

If you wish to perform this upgrade, and you had previously installed the June 2003 Developer Tools update from Apple, you will need to install the August 2003 Developer Tools update BEFORE you upgrade Fink. Under 10.3, be sure to install XCode from the XCode disk before upgrading Fink.

Running "fink selfupdate" should perform the upgrade for you. The latest version of the fink package manager will automatically detect which version of OS X and which version of gcc you have installed, and will adjust itself accordingly.

If you wish to do a fresh install of Fink on a 10.3 system, we recommend bootstrapping from source, starting from fink-full-0.6.0.tar.gz available on fink's sourceforge download page. You'll need XCode for this as well.

Also note that once you have Fink version 0.15.0 or higher, you do not need to install system-xfree86 anymore. Fink is capable of automatically determining your system-xfree86 version if you don't already have any fink x11 packages installed. If you currently have an old system-xfree86 package of any kind installed, please run the following: 

sudo dpkg -r --force-all system-xfree86 system-xfree86-42 \
system-xfree86-43; fink selfupdate; fink index

The Fink team is still working on getting Fink packages working under 10.3, but many many packages already work.

2003-10-23: Say Hello to Mirror Numero Uno-

You are too late. Rus Foster from JVDS beat you all to it. He is the first one to provide us with resources for a Fink rsync mirror. The mirror is located in Atlanta, GA and is updated every two hours, at 35 minutes past.

For those of you who are still waiting, join in. The more mirrors we have the faster you can rsync your info files. As per usual, updated and current information on the mirror structure can be found on Finkmirrors.net

2003-10-22: Mirror, mirror on the wall...-

..who will mirror Fink above all? There is a new player on the turf and it belongs to the Fink team. Finkmirrors.net tells you everything you wanted to know about mirroring Fink and its related resources on your Server. As our mirror structure will hopefully grow in the future, this web-site will also hold information about each individual mirror.

To ensure that our service remains as stable as possible and to distribute the load imposed onto our main rsync server, we are looking for rsync mirrors or full mirrors. Those of you who are willing to share resources will find all the necessary information on Finkmirrors.net.

UPDATE: Yes, I screwed up when I initially installed the DNS records. If you cannot connect please try again later. I am very sorry for this inconvenience. Thank you for your understanding.

2003-10-12: New update method available-

The latest version of the fink package manager offers a new update method, fink selfupdate-rsync, as an alternative to the CVS updates which have been so problematic in the past few months. If you have difficulty updating to the new version, please follow these special update instructions.

In addition, this version of the fink package manager is compatible with last summer's Developer Tools updates. After installing both the new package manager and the Developer Tools update, fink will ask you to reset your gcc version whenever that is necessary.

2003-09-02: Logo contest ends-

The Logo contest held by Fink, announced here, ended yesterday. With over 80 different proposals from countries all over the world we consider the contest a big success. In the next couple of days all the submitted entries will be put on-line in a publicly accessible gallery and more details on the participants shall be published. For those who are curious and cannot wait may have a look at an incomplete preview.

Fink is proud to be part of such a supportive community and would like to thank those who submitted entries and MacWelt for their continued support.

2003-08-18: Source files from ftp.gnu.org-

As announced in this CERT advisory, it has recently been discovered that the ftp servers for GNU software were compromised back in March, although it is not believed that any of the source code housed there was affected.

Fink relies on MD5 checksums when downloading software, and we have had no reports of incorrect checksums in Fink packages. The Free Software Foundation is in the process of verifying the integrity of all of the source code distributed from that ftp site. As of this writing, the source code for the following Fink packages have not yet been verified: autoconf2.54, emacs21, gprolog, groff, guile16, help2man, jwhois, libtool14, libosip1, sed, slib. It may be difficult to install those packages at present.

2003-06-26: Developer Tools Update.-

Quick Summary: DO NOT INSTALL THIS UPDATE.

Apple has released a patch to the December 2002 Developer Tools which includes gcc 3.3, their new compiler.

Fink does not yet support compiling with gcc 3.3. In addition, it is important not to "mix and match" between compilers: all C++ code in fink packages needs to be compiled with the same compiler.

For this reason, the Fink team recommends that if you update your Developer Tools with the new patch, you should be careful to run sudo gcc_select 3 prior to any "fink build" or "fink install" commands.

Update 30 June 2003: A problem has now been detected with the new assembler program which the update installs, which may prevent certain Fink packages from being compiled at all if you install this update.

Generally, Fortran programs will break if you install the update; the breakage does not stop by simply switching back to gcc 3.1. The Fink team is working on a workaround for this problem, but until it is ready, if you need Fortran-related programs you should not install the update.

2003-06-20: Darwin packaging groups to coordinate efforts.-

The Fink, Gentoo, and DarwinPorts projects are pleased to announce the formation of a cooperative development alliance forged to facilitate delivery of freely available software to Mac OS X. Under this new alliance, the projects will share information and coordinate efforts for porting software to Apple's Mac OS X and Darwin operating systems. Members of the alliance will share information using the www.metapkg.org Web site, which will provide a home for this cooperative effort.

2003-06-16: Fink logo contest begins.-

Fink and MacWelt have managed to organize a logo contest. For the next six weeks everyone is invited to submit their logo creations. Fink needs a new face and with your help we might just get one. We are curious to see what you imagine Fink to be as a graphical representation. The initial announcement by Macnews is in German, for those of you not capable of reading German a translated version can be found here.

Fink and MacWelt hope that many of you will participate as we might just find some prices for the winners. Good luck and.... start drawing.

2003-05-05: KDE 3.1.1 Binaries Available-

KDE 3.1.1 binaries are now available. Since they have been released after 0.5.2 came out, you will need to update your package descriptions by running sudo apt-get update (or equivalent) before they will be available for installation. For pointers to the changes and security fixes in this release, see the announcement.

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 may have deleted.

2003-04-14: Fink 0.5.2 released-

Fink is proud to announce that the Fink binary distribution 0.5.2 is available from the download page. With over 190 new binary packages, KDE, KOffice and KDevelop binaries amongst other various improvements this is a recommended download for any new and all existing Fink users. The full announcement can be read on the fink-announce mailing list.

(If you are having trouble upgrading a source installation, consult these special instructions.)

2003-04-09: Interview on OSNews.com-

OSNews.com today is featuring a mini-interview with one of our project leaders, Max Horn. It contains some rather unusual questions, so even if you know Fink fairly well, you might find it informative.

2003-03-29: KDE 3.1.1 Final In Unstable-

KDE 3.1.1 is now in Fink unstable. The full announcement can be read here. Improvements over 3.1 final include many upstream bugfixes, build improvements, koffice bugfixes, kmail crash fixes, and other miscellaneous updates. Binary packages will not be available in time for the next binary distribution, but will be released as an update shortly thereafter.

2003-03-18: KDE 3.1 Final In Stable-

KDE 3.1 is now in Fink stable. The full announcement can be read here. Improvements over 3.1 beta1 include an updated audio driver, faster startup times, cleaned up fink package info, support for Apple X11's window manager, and many bugfixes. Binary packages will be available in the next binary distribution release.

2003-03-17: Apple X11 Beta 3 Released-

A new version of Apple's X11 for Mac OS X is available. It fixes a number of bugs including a few that can cause problems with building Fink packages. It is recommended that all Fink users who are using Apple X11 upgrade. A new version of the system-xfree86 package has been released to unstable that takes the new Apple X11 into account. It should be appearing in stable shortly.

2003-02-14: New version of FinkCommander-

FinkCommander, a separate project which provides a GUI for Fink, has released version 0.5.0, their first Jaguar-only version. The new version includes a package browser which allows you to view the files that Fink has installed for a particular package, as well as many other improvements.

2003-02-07: DO NOT INSTALL VIREX 7.2-

The Virex 7.2 package, currently being distributed free to all .Mac members, has a serious conflict with Fink. Fink users should not install Virex 7.2 under any circumstances. Installing it after Fink is installed will damage your Fink installation; installing it prior to Fink will make it impossible to install Fink without damaging Virex.

This bug has been reported to Virex's manufacturer. We will keep the Fink community informed about the situation as it develops.

2003-01-26: Apple X11 Library Warning-

While Apple's X11 works just fine with existing binaries, it has a bug in the install name of the libraries that can cause some software to build incorrectly, and will break forward-compatibility with future X11 releases.

Ben Hines has created a script (available here) that you can use that will fix the install_name entries in Apple's X11 libraries, but it will not repair software you have already built against the broken libraries.

Update 11 February 2003: This script is not needed with version 0.2 of Apple's X11.app which was released yesterday.

2003-01-21: Gnome, libpng, and the unstable tree-

A problem was uncovered today concerning the versions of imlib, libpng, and gnome in Fink's unstable tree. The Fink team is hard at work addressing this problem. As a workaround, users can downgrade their imlib package to the stable version, "fink install imlib-1.9.10-9", until the problem is fixed.

Many Fink users may be using Fink's unstable tree without being fully aware of what this entails. For a few months in the fall, enabling the unstable tree was the only way to gain access to 10.2-compatible versions of Fink packages. That is no longer the case. Fink users who do not wish to help the Fink team with testing should disable their unstable tree. To do this, edit the file /sw/etc/fink.conf and remove the items unstable/main and unstable/crypto from the Trees line.

The Fink team appreciates those users who are willing to stick with the unstable tree, even when there are problems like today's, and provide the team with prompt feedback. This is a community effort and we appreciate your participation.

2003-01-17: Anonymous CVS issues resolved-

UPDATE: We are pleased to announce that SourceForge have resolved the issues with anonymous CVS access, and the selfupdate-cvs command should work again. Further details on the downtime can be found on the SourceForge.net site status page.

2003-01-07: Fink Interaction with Apple's X11 Public Beta-

Fink works just fine with the public beta X11 release with some caveats. Please read the newly added Apple X11 section of the Fink X11 Documentation for details.

2003-01-07: RSS Feeds available-

Thanks to Benjamin Reed, it is now possible to receive RSS 1.0 Feeds that contain a lot of valuable information. fink-stable.rdf will tell you about the changes and additions in the stable tree, reflecting packages which have been added or modified.

fink-unstable.rdf will tell you about changes or additions to the unstable tree and is most likely the most active RSS feed. The above Feeds are automatically updated every 60 minutes to make sure that they keep you all on top of the latest development.

news.rdf This feed reflects the contents of the Fink News Page. The Feed is updated as soon as a new item is added on the Website.

2002-12-22: New Upgrade Matrix-

A new Upgrade Matrix is now available, for use in upgrading earlier versions of Fink to the current version, under either OS X 10.1 or OS X 10.2. Users upgrading under 10.1 will be brought to Fink version 0.4.1a, while users upgrading under 10.2 will be brought to Fink version 0.5.0a.

2002-12-11: New Upgrade Matrix coming-

The Fink team is aware of the shortcomings of the current Upgrade Matrix page, which is inadequate for upgrading to Fink 0.5.0a. Please be patient as we construct a new version of that page, whose existence will be announced here. In the meantime, some of you may wish to use the test version of the Jaguar updater which was made available on 2002-09-08.

2002-12-09: Fink 0.5.0a Released-

Fink 0.5.0a for Mac OS X 10.2 is now complete. (Note: 0.5.0a is a final release, and replaces 0.5.0 which was never officially released.) This release includes over 700 binary packages for OS X 10.2 as well as over 1800 source packages of all kinds.

The source release and the binary installer are available now, as well as all binary packages. For information about upgrading, visit the Upgrade Matrix.

This release is for Mac OS X 10.2 only. 10.1 users should use Fink 0.4.1.

2002-11-11: Update XFree86 for use with OS X 10.2.2-

Users should update their XFree86 installations to version 4.2.1.1 for use with OS X 10.2.2. If you are using system-xfree86, you can get the new version from the XonX project. If you are using Fink's xfree86 packages, you should update to xfree86-base-4.2.1.1-1 and xfree86-rootless-4.2.1.1-1. These packages are recent additions to the 10.2/unstable tree; to gain access to them, you may need to run "fink selfupdate-cvs" and/or enable the unstable tree

2002-10-30: Don't reuse binary installer-

Users are cautioned to use the binary installer for Fink 0.4.1 only once on a given machine. Due to an apparent bug in Apple's Installer.app program, attempting a second installation on the same machine can result in permissions being altered in the machine's root directory, in some cases leaving the machine in a non-bootable state.

If Installer.app presents you with an "Upgrade" button rather than an "Install" button when installing Fink 0.4.1, do not proceed any further!

A new version of the binary installer for Fink 0.4.1 became available on November 5. The new version avoids the problem of the machine not booting, but even with the new version, users are advised to only "Install", not "Upgrade." (You can recognize the new version by its filesize of 12582912 bytes, while the old version had a filesize of 10541112 bytes.)

2002-09-28: Fink 0.4.1 released-

The source release and the binary installer are available now, as well as all binary packages. For information about upgrading, visit the Upgrade Matrix.

This is the last release for Mac OS X 10.1. Future versions of Fink will not officially support Mac OS X 10.1 anymore, we are gearing all our efforts towards 10.2.

At the same time, this release is not meant for Mac OS X 10.2. Fink 0.5.0. which is targeted for October, will be geared towards 10.2. In the meantime refer to the news item below on how to upgrade Fink for 10.2.

2002-09-27: Possible conflicts with anti-virus software-

A number of recent reports on the fink-users mailing list have indicated problems (including kernel panics and infinite hangs during patching) when using Fink to compile packages while anti-virus software is installed. You may need to switch off any anti-virus software before using Fink.

2002-09-08: Test version of Jaguar updater available-

A test version of the 10.2 updater for Fink is now available. The update process is somewhat complicated at the moment, but is explained in step-by-step instructions for updating. We also have separate instructions to install Fink from scratch on 10.2.

At the moment, approximately 800 out of 1150 Fink packages have been made ready for 10.2. However, virtually all of these packages are still being tested and have not yet been moved to the "stable" tree in the 10.2 section; moreover, binaries for 10.2 packages are not yet available.

2002-08-20: Mac OS X 10.2 / Jaguar-

During the last few weeks, we got a lot of emails asking whether Fink will work Mac OS X 10.2.

The answer is: Yes, we will support 10.2. However, due to some major changes in this new OS version, we had to make a lot of adjustments both to the Fink tool itself and to many packages. The current binary distribution, 0.4.0a, will only work partially on 10.2. We are working on an upgrade guide, as well as a new Fink release, to support 10.2.

If you upgrade your system to 10.2 before the official Fink update for 10.2 is ready, many Fink packages built on 10.1 are going to work fine, but others need to be rebuilt. Some packages need special changes to build on 10.2. Adding "unstable/main" to your list of trees in /sw/etc/fink.conf (see also the FAQ) will give you access to the latest versions of packages, many of which include important fixes for 10.2.

As of now, please do not email us asking about 10.2 support. If you can't wait, consult the mailing list archives instead.

2002-08-06: Fink package manager 0.10.0 released-

Yesterday version 0.10.0 of the Fink package manager was released to the unstable tree, along with version 1.6 of the base-files package. All Fink users which are using the unstable tree are recommended to update to this version. The easiest way to do so usually is to run 'fink selfupdate-cvs' which will automatically take care of updating these essential packages.

Please report any problems you encounter with this version via our bug tracker.

An overview of what changed since version 0.9.12 can be found here.

2002-07-17: Binary distribution moves-

The Fink binary distribution has moved to a new location. All Fink users wishing to use the binary distribution will have to make sure they are using the new binary distribution (many of you already are using it, maybe without even noticing). If you want to know how to switch and why we do this, read more here..

2002-05-29: KDE support-

Fink announces support for KDE. Packages are available in the unstable distribution, as well as pre-built binaries. For more information on installing and running it, see the full KDE Support In Fink announcement.

2002-05-03: Bug in passwd package-

All Fink users are urged to update their passwd package to version 20020329 or newer. Older versions of the passwd package are affected by a bug which could lead to the loss of all data on your hard disk if you remove system users created by Fink manually from the system via System Preferences. (Removing them via the NetInfo tool is safe.) You can check the version of your passwd package by entering dpkg -s passwd. If your version is outdated, you can update to the current one in two ways:

See Fink's FAQ, question 6.3, for more information about the passwd package.

2002-04-18: Fink 0.4.0 released-

The source release and the binary installer are available now, as well as many of the binary packages. As usual, the rest of the binaries will be made available during the next few days. For information about upgrading, visit the Upgrade Matrix.

2002-01-16: Fink 0.3.2a is released-

The source release and the binary installer are available now, the bulk of binary packages will be built and made available gradually over the next few days as usual. For information about upgrading, visit the Upgrade Matrix and the User's Guide.

2002-01-09: Fink 0.3.2 is released-

The source release is available now, the binary installer will follow soon. The bulk of binary packages will be built and made available gradually over the next few days as usual. For information about upgrading, visit the Upgrade Matrix and the User's Guide.

2002-01-08: Binary distribution lost-

Due to a faulty script, the whole fink website, including our binary distro, has been wiped! This means you can't use the binary distro right now. I am working as quick as I can on uploading the new Fink 0.3.2 binary distro. In addition, the package database is not working for now. Please bear with us.

2001-12-16: Yes, we are alive!-

Despite the fact that no news were listed here for over a month, the fink project was quite busy in the recent time. Sadly, our leader, Christoph, left us last month. But despite this, development is going on actively.

Version 0.9.5 of the Fink package manager was recently released, and many updated and new packages are in our CVS.

2001-11-04: Fink 0.3.1 is released-

The source release and the binary installer are available now, the bulk of binary packages will be built and made available gradually over the next few days as usual. For information about upgrading, visit the Upgrade Matrix and the recently updated User's Guide.

2001-11-02: Running X11 document updated-

The Running X11 document has had a significant update. The troubleshooting section now has a comprehensive list of XDarwin error messages with explanations.

2001-10-31-

MacOSXHints has posted an installation guide for XFree86, Fink, Window Maker and The GIMP.

2001-10-23: forked.net-

In addition to ripping off Fink packages and breaking the GPL, the ports collection at forked.net has just gone commercial. More details soon.

2001-10-03: Binary distribution complete-

The binary distribution update is now complete. The 10.1 compatibility report has been updated to reflect the fixes in Fink 0.3.0.

2001-09-30: Fink 0.3.0 is released-

The source release, the binary installer and a binary upgrade kit for broken-by-10.1 installations are available in the new download section. The bulk of the binary distribution will be updated gradually over the next few days, as usual.

2001-09-26: Mac OS X 10.1 released-

Mac OS X 10.1 has been officially released yesterday. Before you use Fink on 10.1, check out the compatibility report. Update: The apt-get issue has been solved, expect a new release this weekend.

2001-09-07: Binary distribution fully updated-

The binary distribution is now fully updated to Fink 0.2.6. Enjoy.

2001-09-04: Fink 0.2.6 is released-

Fink 0.2.6 is released, fixing several bootstrap problems. The source release is available from the download page or via the 'fink selfupdate' command. The binary release will follow soon.

2001-09-02: Fink IRC Channel-

Chat with the developers and other users! We now have a #fink channel on the openprojects.net IRC network.

2001-08-25: Fink 0.2.5 was released-

The source release is available from the download page, the binary release will follow soon.

2001-08-23: OpenOSX.com-

OpenOSX.com refuses to give fair credit after using Fink to create GIMP CDs. Read Christoph's public statement on the issue.

2001-08-22: New help page-

The new help page lists various ways to get help using Fink. It also lists some ideas how you can give back to the project.

2001-08-13: Porting tips and X11 document updated-

The porting tips document has a new chapter on shared libraries and modules. The X11 document was also updated recently.

2001-08-01: Version 0.2.4a is released-

There was a bootstrapping problem in Fink 0.2.4. It is fixed in Fink 0.2.4a. You only need this if you're doing a first time install, updates are not affected.

2001-08-01: Version 0.2.4 is released-

Version 0.2.4 is released. Get it from the download page. Some highlights: The GIMP 1.2.2, sound playback and recording via esound (thanks to Shawn Hsiao and Masanori Sekino for the CoreAudio patch), xmms 1.2.5.

2001-07-19: New document: X11 on Darwin and Mac OS X-

A comprehensive document about X11 on Darwin and Mac OS X is now available. It was written to be useful for anyone, not just Fink users.

2001-07-13: Package database now online-

A prototype of the package database is now online.

2001-07-09: Version 0.2.3 is released-

Get it from the download page. This version fixes the dpkg download problems many of you were having.

2001-07-03: Packaging Manual updated-

The Packaging Manual was updated to include all recently added fields.

2001-06-30: Web site restructuring-

A major restructuring of the web site has started. The non-Fink-specific documents were removed because I don't have the time to maintain them. All documentation will be consolidated in the new Documentation section.

2001-06-24: Version 0.2.2 is released-

Version 0.2.2 is finally released. Get it from the download page. Be sure to read the notes about X11 in the INSTALL file.

2001-05-19: CVS instructions updated-

The CVS instructions have been updated for Fink 0.2.x.

2001-04-26: FAQ online-

This site now sports a FAQ section. Not much content yet, but it's here to stay.

2001-04-20: Version 0.2.0 is released-

It now uses dpkg for binary package management. You can get it from the download page, but be aware that this version is not yet as stable as the 0.1.x series.

2001-04-15: Released version 0.1.8a-

Released version 0.1.8a, fixing install problems. You only need this if you downloaded 0.1.8 and had install problems ("stow not found"). Get it from the download page.

2001-04-14: Version 0.1.8 is out-

Get it from the download page.

2001-03-30: Porting notes updated-

The porting notes have been updated with information on Mac OS X Final.

2001-03-30: Version 0.1.7 is out!-

Get it from the download page.

2001-03-24: Mac OS X is released!-

Expect Fink packages to be adapted to the final release within the next one or two weeks.

2001-03-15: Libtool page updated-

Updated the libtool page with a revised patch that does full shared library versioning.

2001-03-08: Version 0.1.6 is out-

Get it from the download page.