Steps to ensure compatibility between fink and macports

[Shreevatsa R]

On Sat, Jan 17, 2009 at 3:58 AM, Ryan Schmidt <ryandesign at macports.org> wrote:
> On Jan 17, 2009, at 01:12, David T. wrote:
>
>> I am new to this list. I have had a macbook for three years now after
>> moving from 20+years in the PC world with a smattering of Linux. I am
>> running 10.5.6, and I have used fink for my limited open-source software
>> needs (gnucash), but recently saw that others have been able to use MacPorts
>> to create a Quartz version of Gnucash. Since I have a working version of
>> Gnucash using fink, I am leery about just firing up Macports and trying the
>> steps listed by others. Before I do this, I'd like to know with some
>> certainty the steps I need to take to insulate the functional fink package
>> from my fiddling around with MacPorts. I searched for guidance on
>> fink/macports compatibility, but didn't find any clear outlines of how to
>> ensure this. Has anyone got a clear set of steps and guidelines for me to
>> follow to try using macports without messing up fink?
>
> Rename fink's /sw directory to something else. That should ensure it does
> not interfere with MacPorts.
>
> You should only use software installed via one package manager at a time --
> either Fink, or MacPorts, not both.

Er, I don't think this is true. You don't have to do *anything* to
ensure Fink and MacPorts don't intefere with each other. They are both
designed to not interfere with the rest of the system, so if they do
interfere with each other, it's a bug in one of them.

In my experience (and that of others) it works perfectly to use both
Fink and MacPorts simultaneously; installing packages from whichever
of the two happens to have a working version. (But do care about what
you do to your environment variables like $PATH: Fink's
/sw/bin/init.sh is a bit heavy-handed.)

Of course I'm just a user and don't know very much of the internals of
either, so maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong.