Fink is an attempt to bring the full world of Unix Open\r\nSource software to Darwin and Mac OS X. Packages are downloaded and built automatically and installed into a tree managed by dpkg, all with full dependency tracking.

User Documentation

The current user documentation for Fink:

• Fink User's Guide - this covers installing Fink itself, installing packages, and upgrading to a new Fink release. It contains instructions for both the source and the binary release.
• Fink Advanced Topics Guide - covers more advanced concepts than those covered in the User's Guide.
• Running X11 on Darwin and Mac OS X - covers concepts, installation and launching (also intended for Darwin and Mac OS X users in general)

A bunch of documents that are more complete, but slightly outdated and no longer maintained:

• Installation and Upgrading - how to install Fink or upgrade to a new version
• Usage - how to use Fink and the installed software
• Fink ReadMe - the ReadMe for the source distribution
• CVS Access - how to access the Fink CVS repository to get the latest source packages between releases

Developer Documentation

• Security Policy Manual - Mandatory read for all of those who either maintain packages in Fink or would like to add their own.
• Using Fink: A Developer's How To (2MB pdf file) - slides from a presentation at the O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference (also available as a PowerPoint file)
• Porting Tips - notes for porting Unix applications to Darwin
• Packaging Tutorial - a complement to the Packaging Manual which focuses on real examples and introduces packaging to beginners.
• Packaging Manual - how to create and maintain Fink packages
• The Fink Developer Wiki - includes developer-related material that is under construction.

Other Documents

• Internationalization Guide - material concerning the ongoing website internationalization effort
• Mailing List Netiquette - how best to employ the Fink mailing lists.