Equivalent of 'apt-get' command ?

Hi,

On my good ol' Linux box, when I want to install an application using the command line, I use the

command, which looks up a repository full of packages and downloads/installs the package I'm asking (.deb for Debian packages).

On a Mac (10.6.4), is there a way to install a package/application/command using one command line ? Right now, I must compile every applicaiton and it takes forever !

What are you installing that you need to compile the application yourself?
Under Mac OS, you mostly download the application you find with google, mount the .dmg and copy the app to your Applications folder.
I know, it's completely different from the "linux-way"

On a side note, you can install Apple's Xcode and macports The MacPorts Project -- Home if like me, you have need to compile items on occasion. Macports allows you to add repos as you like to compile on your system.

I've never tried it but I've heard good things about Rudix. It's essentially a project in which they package Unix utilities for the Mac. You can download the whole package or individual utilities.

Macports is what I use as well. After install it works pretty much like apt - except it compiles packages like Gentoo - but you get the picture.

Good thing to point out ports!

Can I just say that some of us here haven't a clue what this post is about. Would some kind soul like to educate us?

Sawday, you can read up on the topic:
The MacPorts Project -- Home

For most people it's absolutely unneeded to install anything via ports.

Just for the record and to answer the OP's question -- the Mac command line equivilent of apt-get is ...

...wait for it ...

... apt-get.

http://andywismar.com/2004/11/09/fink_aptget_mac_os_x.html

I would have suggested Fink earlier but although the project is still alive, they have yet to provide a binary for Snow Leopard. If you can't provide a binary for an OS that is just over 9 month old, I have to question the project. On top of that, MacPorts is sort of supported by Apple as a project of Mac OS Forge (although packages built through MacPorts are not).

Aye - I have fink installed on my machine as well but didn't suggest it as Macports seems more active - all the open source programs I have looked for have been available on Macports.

There is a lot of reading on the Macports page. To summarize - Macports is a system to deliver packages to your computer with dependencies. It is a type of package manager similar to Apt on a Debian system or RPM on a Red hat system. You basically point to a bunch of repositories that hold the packages. Then you request to install those packages from the repositories. So lets say I want to install vim - an open source text editor - I could search for MacVim or mac vim on google or I could