3 ms·

Problem: unsatisfied with package management on OS X / macOS Project: rekindle an old project of mine [0][1] Caveat: definitely works (as in I'm using it dail

by lloeki 10y ago

Problem: unsatisfied with package management on OS X / macOS Project: rekindle an old project of mine [0][1] Caveat: definitely works (as in I'm using it daily), but not ready for real public prime time as some meta+infra stuff still needs to be figured out. Will post instructions to get things running if some daring folks are interested. [0]: http://www.arch-osx.org http://www.arch-osx.org / http://www.archmac.org http://www.archmac.org [1]: https://github.com/arch-osx https://github.com/arch-osx / https://gitlab.com/arch-osx https://gitlab.com/arch-osx

applecrazy 10y ago
Not to be critical, but isn't Homebrew or Fink good enough? What features does your package manager offer that are better than these active projects?
- lloeki 10y ago
  A very valid question, I've been a Fink user, then MacPorts, then Arch OS X, then Homebrew and now Arch OS X again, and I've got some more detailed writing about this that I ought to publish one day. From the top of my head: - PGP-signed repo db + packages (Homebrew relies solely on git SHA1s) - package binary deltas - building new packages is very simple thanks to ABS (Fink and MacPorts are a pain) - doesn't write everything as a single user in a possibly multi-user machine (yes people sometimes still do share machines) - doesn't get clobbered by software that puts stuff in /usr/local (installs in /opt/arch) - daemons such as postgresql can run as their dedicated user - uses sudo, so can do stuff Homebrew won't (like populate /etc/shells, /Library/LaunchDaemons, /Library/Extensions) - makepkg builds under user, "install" with fakeroot, only pacman needs root - synergy as an ArchLinux user, so have the benefit of a single way to manage packages To each his own, and Homebrew is awesome (I've contributed some stuff there myself) but sometimes there are itches to be scratched: no one use case is exactly the same as another.
  - biztos 10y ago
    Sounds interesting, I will check it out for sure. I'm mostly happy with Homebrew but I have had trouble occasionally with the multi-user thing. Because some people (at least one!) still use different user accounts on the same Mac, e.g. "work" and "private."
stephenr 10y ago
I've wondered about this myself. My thoughts always ended up deciding that what we need is a Mac equivalent of apt, which relies on the existing `installer`, as apt relies on dpkg.
thomastjeffery 10y ago
I wonder how mature Nix is on OS X. I don't have any Apple hardware anymore, but I just wanted to mention how fantastic this package manager is. NixOS quickly became my favorite OS, simply because of the sheer power of Nix.

by lloeki 10y ago

applecrazy 10y ago

Not to be critical, but isn't Homebrew or Fink good enough? What features does your package manager offer that are better than these active projects?

lloeki 10y ago
A very valid question, I've been a Fink user, then MacPorts, then Arch OS X, then Homebrew and now Arch OS X again, and I've got some more detailed writing about this that I ought to publish one day. From the top of my head: - PGP-signed repo db + packages (Homebrew relies solely on git SHA1s) - package binary deltas - building new packages is very simple thanks to ABS (Fink and MacPorts are a pain) - doesn't write everything as a single user in a possibly multi-user machine (yes people sometimes still do share machines) - doesn't get clobbered by software that puts stuff in /usr/local (installs in /opt/arch) - daemons such as postgresql can run as their dedicated user - uses sudo, so can do stuff Homebrew won't (like populate /etc/shells, /Library/LaunchDaemons, /Library/Extensions) - makepkg builds under user, "install" with fakeroot, only pacman needs root - synergy as an ArchLinux user, so have the benefit of a single way to manage packages To each his own, and Homebrew is awesome (I've contributed some stuff there myself) but sometimes there are itches to be scratched: no one use case is exactly the same as another.
- biztos 10y ago
  Sounds interesting, I will check it out for sure. I'm mostly happy with Homebrew but I have had trouble occasionally with the multi-user thing. Because some people (at least one!) still use different user accounts on the same Mac, e.g. "work" and "private."

stephenr 10y ago

I've wondered about this myself. My thoughts always ended up deciding that what we need is a Mac equivalent of apt, which relies on the existing `installer`, as apt relies on dpkg.

thomastjeffery 10y ago

I wonder how mature Nix is on OS X. I don't have any Apple hardware anymore, but I just wanted to mention how fantastic this package manager is. NixOS quickly became my favorite OS, simply because of the sheer power of Nix.