[Pythonmac-SIG] fink vs DarwinPorts?

[Michael Twomey]

Funny, I generally prefer fink precisely because it uses /sw. It keeps
itself neatly inside /sw (source, intermediate build, final
installation). For a unix head like myself I couldn't ask any more. I
generally dislike a packaging system using /usr/local instead of their
own prefix, as it is almost gauranteed to tread on other self compiled
apps (or downloaded apps). /usr/local is meant to be for sys admins
local installs of apps, a strong packaging system should use another
prefix.

Another reason is that it is based on the debian apt packaging system,
so you have a very controlled build environment. Their .info package
descriptions are succint and it is easy to roll your own packages.

I find the packages to be of very high quality (I sit on the unstable
branch, don't let the name dissuade you, it's generally far more
stable than many other distros' definition of stable), particularly
the scientific computing packages (I'm biased, it has good python
scientific stuff, which aligns neatly with my work).

I haven't been too pleased with darwinports, it either gave me dud
python packages when I tried it, or didn't have high enough quality on
other packages I tried. It's definitely more bleeding edge than fink,
but I it's easier to roll my own in fink when I need to.

mick


On Sat, 05 Feb 2005 11:57:01 +0100, Piet van Oostrum <piet at cs.uu.nl> wrote:
> >>>>> "Brett C." <bac at OCF.Berkeley.EDU> (BC) wrote:
> 
> >BC> Russell E. Owen wrote:
> >>> I've seen a lot of discussion lately about fink and darwinports and I'm
> >>> wondering if folks who have experience with either can comment on their
> >>> relative merits?
> >>>
> 
> >BC> I personally have run Fink in the past multiple times and always end up
> >BC> deleting it in the end.  DarwinPorts, on the other hand, I have yet to
> >BC> uninstall.  The package config files are easy to read by eye (it is
> >BC> basically Tcl code).  I also just like how the system is set up using the
> >BC> command line; never liked how Fink works that way.
> 
> >BC> And their idea of activation (can have multiple installs of the same thing
> >BC> with different configs; just activate to choose which one to use) is nice.
> >BC> Plus having Jordan Hubbard on the team is nice (former member of FreeBSD
> >BC> who now works at Apple for those who don't know).  =)
> 
> I just removed fink from my system and am reinstalling the things that I
> need with darwinports (most of it, some things I still have manually
> installed). Fink invades your system and it wants to install all kinds of
> things that I don't want such as other python versions. Darwinports is less
> invading. However, darwinports doesn't always state all dependencies which
> means you might have to be a bit more careful. By the way, I install
> darwinports in /usr/local because I don't want yet another directory tree.
> 
> There are still traces of /sw/lib in my installed software but once these
> are used they fail. I am working on finding all traces and removing them.
> --
> Piet van Oostrum <piet at cs.uu.nl>
> URL: http://www.cs.uu.nl/~piet [PGP]
> Private email: piet at vanoostrum.net
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