On Aug 16 2002, Max Horn wrote: > At 0:30 Uhr -0300 15.08.2002, Rogério Brito wrote: > > 1 - For instance, I would like to install some packages that > > are newer than those available in the latest release of > > fink, but does this mean that I have to grab the sources > > for them and compile them? Aren't they available in binary > > form?
First of all, I would like to thank everybody that replied to my original message. Your answers were quite important in reassuring some concepts where I wasn't very sure. > Only the stable distro is available in binary form. That's what I feared. :-) > Note that the unstable tree has many package in newer versions, and > even the stable tree from CVS (sort of our "testing" if you know > debian) is more recent than the 0.4.0a release tree (which is > identical to 0.4.0 anyway). But this stable tree from CVS isn't available in binary form, right? What I'm looking for is to avoid compilation the most. OTOH, most people using fink already had to recompile some packages. Couldn't these precompiled versions contributed by the users be included in the repository, if dedicated machines for building are not available. This brings another point which is not clear to me: does fink have something like Debian's build daemons for automation of the build process? Since you mentioned "testing", another question that I have is the following: what are the rules which packages must satisfy in order to enter the "stable tree from CVS"? > > 2 - Connected to the question above, I must confess that I > > don't completely understand why fink uses both "apt-get" > > and "fink". Wouldn't "apt-get source <package>" work for > > building packages from source? That's what I usually use > > with Debian... > > No. We use a complete different way to describe pacakges and build > them from source. Wasn't apt-get's build infrastructure enough for fink? I must be honest here and say that this confused me a lot when I was deciding to install fink on my system, while reading the documentation for the first time. Could one line or two be added to the current documentation to let people already used to Debian know that they shouldn't use apt-get's build option? BTW, the manual leaves things more or less unclear for the prospective user if they will have or not to compile the packages to use the binaries. I'd suggest to make this clearer (the section about "binary distribution" and "source distribution" confused me a little bit). > > 3 - Does fink feature something like Debian's apt-move, which > > moves the packages grabbed from the network to a local > > repository in appropriate sections? > > I don't even know apt-move. So I guess no. Well, I saw that apt-move isn't included in the fink project. It is a handy utility that moves the downloaded packages from /var/cache/apt/archives to another place in your filesystem and reconstructs an apt-get'able tree using the packages. An amazing utility for burning the packages you actually use onto a CD for backup reasons or for offline systems. > > 4 - Does fink has any security updates section, like Debian's > > security.debian.org? > > No. How are security updates handled? For instance, I see that the version of mozilla in the 0.4.0 distribution (0.9.8) has a security problem. What should the user do in this case? Of course, the case of mozilla is just a bad example, since the user can use an alternative browser as a workaround, but other packages might not have clear substitutes... > > 5 - Connected to the apt-move question, what is the > > recommended way for creating a local mirror of the > > packages for burning them on a CD for disconnected > > computers? > > There is no recommended way. I never tried to do it. Possibly you > can ask other people around here who did this. Ok, thanks for your answers. I'll research this a bit more. Thanks for all the answers to my conceptual questions, Roger... -- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Rogério Brito - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - http://www.ime.usp.br/~rbrito =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ------------------------------------------------------- This sf.net email is sponsored by: OSDN - Tired of that same old cell phone? Get a new here for FREE! https://www.inphonic.com/r.asp?r=sourceforge1&refcode1=vs3390 _______________________________________________ Fink-beginners mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fink-beginners