MacOSX - forked.net: pkg to end all pkgs

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Topic: pkg to end all pkgs

RComet
Junior Member
Member # 78

posted September 06, 2001 11:28 PM

The ultimate pkg for MacOS X is one that would take any GNU source code and make the necessary changes to work under MacOS X and then compile it for you. I know this would be difficult and still wouldn't work with all applications, but it would be literally porting hundreds of apps to MacOS X at once! So if you're up to the challenge and want to help the MacOS X community, as well as the development of the entire MacOS community a lot, this is the goal to work toward.

Posts: 5 | From: the net | Registered: Sep 2001 | IP: Logged

chrisp
Junior Member
Member # 35

posted September 08, 2001 09:38 AM

You may want to take a look at Fink. It can build all packages from source using a straightforward package description format. The format has special fields for common porting fixes and lets you specify just the things that are different from a standard './configure; make; make install'. It uses dpkg (and the .deb package format) as a packaging backend to allow clean updates and removals.

As for mass porting: there's also the GNU-Darwin project. They took the FreeBSD ports collection (which already builds 1000's of apps on FreeBSD) and ported it to Darwin / Mac OS X. However, they are having big-time trouble because many, many packages don't build cleanly on Darwin. There are just too many differences between Darwin and FreeBSD to make full automatic porting feasible.

(Disclaimer: I'm the guy who started the Fink project. Take everything with a grain of salt and look for yourself.)

Posts: 14 | From: Stuttgart, Germany | Registered: Aug 2001 | IP: Logged

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