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<H1><A NAME="SEC189" HREF="octave_toc.html#TOC189">Installing Octave</A></H1>

<P>
<A NAME="IDX973"></A>

</P>
<P>
Here is the procedure for installing Octave from scratch on a Unix
system.  For instructions on how to install the binary distributions of
Octave, see section <A HREF="octave_33.html#SEC192">Binary Distributions</A>.

</P>

<UL>
<LI>

Run the shell script <TT>`configure'</TT>.  This will determine the features
your system has (or doesn't have) and create a file named
<TT>`Makefile'</TT> from each of the files named <TT>`Makefile.in'</TT>.

Here is a summary of the configure options that are most frequently used
when building Octave:

<DL COMPACT>

<DT><CODE>--prefix=<VAR>prefix</VAR></CODE>
<DD>
Install Octave in subdirectories below <VAR>prefix</VAR>.  The default value
of <VAR>prefix</VAR> is <TT>`/usr/local'</TT>.

<DT><CODE>--srcdir=<VAR>dir</VAR></CODE>
<DD>
Look for Octave sources in the directory <VAR>dir</VAR>.

<DT><CODE>--with-f2c</CODE>
<DD>
Use <CODE>f2c</CODE> even if a Fortran compiler is available.

<DT><CODE>--with-g77</CODE>
<DD>
Use <CODE>g77</CODE> to compile Fortran code.

<DT><CODE>--enable-shared</CODE>
<DD>
Create shared libraries.  If you are planning to use
<CODE>--enable-lite-kernelel</CODE> or the dynamic loading features, you will
probably want to use this option.  It will make your <TT>`.oct'</TT> files
much smaller and on some systems it may be necessary to build shared
libraries in order to use dynamically linked functions.

You may also want to build a shared version of <CODE>libstdc++</CODE>, if your
system doesn't already have one.  Note that a patch is needed to build
shared versions of version 2.7.2 of <CODE>libstdc++</CODE> on the HP-PA
architecture.  You can find the patch at
@url{ftp://ftp.cygnus.com/pub/g++/libg++-2.7.2-hppa-gcc-fix}.

<DT><CODE>--enable-dl</CODE>
<DD>
Use <CODE>dlopen</CODE> and friends to make Octave capable of dynamically
linking externally compiled functions.  This only works on systems that
actually have these functions.  If you plan on using this feature, you
should probably also use <CODE>--enable-shared</CODE> to reduce the size of
your <TT>`.oct'</TT> files.

<DT><CODE>--enable-shl</CODE>
<DD>
Use <CODE>shl_load</CODE> and friends to make Octave capable of dynamically
linking externally compiled functions.  This only works on systems that
actually have these functions (only HP-UX systems).  If you plan on
using this feature, you should probably also use <CODE>--enable-shared</CODE>
to reduce the size of your <TT>`.oct'</TT> files.

<DT><CODE>--enable-lite-kernel</CODE>
<DD>
Compile smaller kernel.  This currently requires the dynamic linking
functions <CODE>dlopen</CODE> or <CODE>shl_load</CODE> and friends so that Octave
can load functions at run time that are not loaded at compile time.

<DT><CODE>--help</CODE>
<DD>
Print a summary of the options recognized by the configure script.
</DL>

See the file <TT>`INSTALL'</TT> for more information about the command line
options used by configure.  That file also contains instructions for
compiling in a directory other than where the source is located.

<LI>

Run make.

You will need a recent version of GNU Make.  Modifying Octave's
makefiles to work with other make programs is probably not worth
your time.  We recommend you get and compile GNU Make instead.

For plotting, you will need to have gnuplot installed on your system.
Gnuplot is a command-driven interactive function plotting program.
Gnuplot is copyrighted, but freely distributable.  The `gnu' in gnuplot
is a coincidence--it is not related to the GNU project or the FSF in
any but the most peripheral sense.

To compile Octave, you will need a recent version of GNU Make.  You
will also need <CODE>g++</CODE> 2.7.2 or later.  Version 2.8.0 or <CODE>egcs</CODE>
1.0.x should work.  Later versions may work, but C++ is still evolving,
so don't be too surprised if you run into some trouble.

It is no longer necessary to have <CODE>libg++</CODE>, but you do need to have
the GNU implementation of <CODE>libstdc++</CODE>.  If you are using <CODE>g++</CODE>
2.7.2, <CODE>libstdc++</CODE> is distributed along with <CODE>libg++</CODE>, but for
later versions, <CODE>libstdc++</CODE> is distributed separately.  For
<CODE>egcs</CODE>, <CODE>libstdc++</CODE> is included with the compiler
distribution.

If you plan to modify the parser you will also need GNU <CODE>bison</CODE> and
<CODE>flex</CODE>.  If you modify the documentation, you will need GNU
Texinfo, along with the patch for the <CODE>makeinfo</CODE> program that is
distributed with Octave.

GNU Make, <CODE>gcc</CODE>, and <CODE>libstdc++</CODE>, <CODE>gnuplot</CODE>,
<CODE>bison</CODE>, <CODE>flex</CODE>, and Texinfo are all available from many
anonymous ftp archives.  The primary site is @url{ftp.gnu.org}, but it
is often very busy.  A list of sites that mirror the software on
@url{ftp.gnu.org} is available by anonymous ftp from
@url{ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/GNUinfo/FTP}.

If you don't have a Fortran compiler, or if your Fortran compiler
doesn't work like the traditional Unix f77, you will need to have the
Fortran to C translator <CODE>f2c</CODE>.  You can get <CODE>f2c</CODE> from any
number of anonymous ftp archives.  The most recent version of <CODE>f2c</CODE>
is always available from @url{netlib.att.com}.

On an otherwise idle Pentium 133 running Linux, it will take somewhere
between 1-1/2 to 3 hours to compile everything, depending on whether you
are building shared libraries.  You will need about 100 megabytes of disk
storage to work with (considerably less if you don't compile with debugging
symbols).  To do that, use the command


<PRE>
make CFLAGS=-O CXXFLAGS=-O LDFLAGS=
</PRE>

instead of just <SAMP>`make'</SAMP>.

<LI>

If you encounter errors while compiling Octave, first check the list of
known problems below to see if there is a workaround or solution for
your problem.  If not,
see section <A HREF="octave_32.html#SEC181">Known Causes of Trouble</A>,
for information about how to report bugs.

<LI>

Once you have successfully compiled Octave, run <SAMP>`make install'</SAMP>.

This will install a copy of octave, its libraries, and its documentation
in the destination directory.  As distributed, Octave is installed in
the following directories.  In the table below, <VAR>prefix</VAR> defaults to
<TT>`/usr/local'</TT>, <VAR>version</VAR> stands for the current version number
of the interpreter, and <VAR>arch</VAR> is the type of computer on which
Octave is installed (for example, <SAMP>`i586-unknown-gnu'</SAMP>).

<DL COMPACT>

<DT><TT>`<VAR>prefix</VAR>/bin'</TT>
<DD>
Octave and other binaries that people will want to run directly.

<DT><TT>`<VAR>prefix</VAR>/lib'</TT>
<DD>
Libraries like libcruft.a and liboctave.a.

<DT><TT>`<VAR>prefix</VAR>/share'</TT>
<DD>
Architecture-independent data files.

<DT><TT>`<VAR>prefix</VAR>/include/octave'</TT>
<DD>
Include files distributed with Octave.

<DT><TT>`<VAR>prefix</VAR>/man/man1'</TT>
<DD>
Unix-style man pages describing Octave.

<DT><TT>`<VAR>prefix</VAR>/info'</TT>
<DD>
Info files describing Octave.

<DT><TT>`<VAR>prefix</VAR>/share/octave/<VAR>version</VAR>/m'</TT>
<DD>
Function files distributed with Octave.  This includes the Octave
version, so that multiple versions of Octave may be installed at the
same time.

<DT><TT>`<VAR>prefix</VAR>/lib/octave/<VAR>version</VAR>/exec/<VAR>arch</VAR>'</TT>
<DD>
Executables to be run by Octave rather than the user.

<DT><TT>`<VAR>prefix</VAR>/lib/octave/<VAR>version</VAR>/oct/<VAR>arch</VAR>'</TT>
<DD>
Object files that will be dynamically loaded.

<DT><TT>`<VAR>prefix</VAR>/share/octave/<VAR>version</VAR>/imagelib'</TT>
<DD>
Image files that are distributed with Octave.
</DL>
</UL>



<H2><A NAME="SEC190" HREF="octave_toc.html#TOC190">Notes</A></H2>


<UL>
<LI>

You must use the version of GNU Info distributed with Octave, because it
includes some changes to allow Octave to search the indices of the info
files.  If you would like, you should be able to replace other copies of
the Info browser that you have with the one distributed with Octave.
Patches relative to a recent release of the GNU Info browser are
included in the file <TT>`INFO.PATCH'</TT> in the Octave source
distribution.  This modification has been submitted to the GNU Info
maintainer, and should appear in some future release.  Once that
happens, the GNU Info browser will no longer be distributed with Octave.
</UL>



<H2><A NAME="SEC191" HREF="octave_toc.html#TOC191">Installation Problems</A></H2>

<P>
This section contains a list of problems (and some apparent problems
that don't really mean anything is wrong) that may show up during
installation of Octave.

</P>

<UL>
<LI>

On some SCO systems, <CODE>info</CODE> fails to compile if
<CODE>HAVE_TERMIOS_H</CODE> is defined int <TT>`config.h'</TT>.  Simply removing
the definition from <TT>`info/config.h'</TT> should allow it to compile.

<LI>

If <CODE>configure</CODE> finds <CODE>dlopen</CODE>, <CODE>dlsym</CODE>, <CODE>dlclose</CODE>,
and <CODE>dlerror</CODE>, but not the header file <TT>`dlfcn.h'</TT>, you need to
find the source for the header file and install it in the directory
<TT>`usr/include'</TT>.  This is reportedly a problem with Slackware 3.1.
For Linux/GNU systems, the source for <TT>`dlfcn.h'</TT> is in the
<CODE>ldso</CODE> package.

<LI>

Building <TT>`.oct'</TT> files doesn't work.

You should probably have a shared version of <CODE>libstdc++</CODE>.  A patch
is needed to build shared versions of version 2.7.2 of <CODE>libstdc++</CODE>
on the HP-PA architecture.  You can find the patch at
@url{ftp://ftp.cygnus.com/pub/g++/libg++-2.7.2-hppa-gcc-fix}.

<LI>

On FreeBSD systems Octave may hang while initializing some internal
constants.  The fix appears to be to use


<PRE>
options      GPL_MATH_EMULATE
</PRE>

rather than 


<PRE>
options      MATH_EMULATE 
</PRE>

in the kernel configuration files (typically found in the directory
<TT>`/sys/i386/conf'</TT>.  After making this change, you'll need to rebuild
the kernel, install it, and reboot.

<LI>

If you encounter errors like


<PRE>
passing `void (*)()' as argument 2 of
  `octave_set_signal_handler(int, void (*)(int))'
</PRE>

or


<PRE>
warning: ANSI C++ prohibits conversion from `(int)' to `(...)'
</PRE>

while compiling <TT>`sighandlers.cc'</TT>, you may need to edit some files
in the <CODE>gcc</CODE> include subdirectory to add proper prototypes for functions
there.  For example, Ultrix 4.2 needs proper declarations for the
<CODE>signal</CODE> function and the <CODE>SIG_IGN</CODE> macro in the file
<TT>`signal.h'</TT>.

On some systems the <CODE>SIG_IGN</CODE> macro is defined to be something like
this:


<PRE>
#define  SIG_IGN  (void (*)())1
</PRE>

when it should really be something like:


<PRE>
#define  SIG_IGN  (void (*)(int))1
</PRE>

to match the prototype declaration for the <CODE>signal</CODE> function.  This
change should also be made for the <CODE>SIG_DFL</CODE> and <CODE>SIG_ERR</CODE>
symbols. It may be necessary to change the definitions in
<TT>`sys/signal.h'</TT> as well.

The <CODE>gcc</CODE> <CODE>fixincludes</CODE> and <CODE>fixproto</CODE> scripts should
probably fix these problems when <CODE>gcc</CODE> installs its modified set of
header files, but I don't think that's been done yet.

<STRONG>You should not change the files in <TT>`/usr/include'</TT></STRONG>.  You
can find the <CODE>gcc</CODE> include directory tree by running the command


<PRE>
gcc -print-libgcc-file-name
</PRE>

The directory of <CODE>gcc</CODE> include files normally begins in the same directory
that contains the file <TT>`libgcc.a'</TT>.

<LI>

There is a bug with the <CODE>makeinfo</CODE> program that is distributed with
Texinfo (through version 3.9) that causes the indices in Octave's
on-line manual to be generated incorrectly.  If you need to recreate the
on-line documentation, you should get the <CODE>makeinfo</CODE> program that
is distributed with texinfo-3.9 and apply the patch for <CODE>makeinfo</CODE>
that is distributed with Octave.  See the file <TT>`MAKEINFO.PATCH'</TT> for
more details.

<LI>

Some of the Fortran subroutines may fail to compile with older versions
of the Sun Fortran compiler.  If you get errors like


<PRE>
zgemm.f:
	zgemm:
warning: unexpected parent of complex expression subtree
zgemm.f, line 245: warning: unexpected parent of complex
  expression subtree
warning: unexpected parent of complex expression subtree
zgemm.f, line 304: warning: unexpected parent of complex
  expression subtree
warning: unexpected parent of complex expression subtree
zgemm.f, line 327: warning: unexpected parent of complex
  expression subtree
pcc_binval: missing IR_CONV in complex op
make[2]: *** [zgemm.o] Error 1
</PRE>

when compiling the Fortran subroutines in the <TT>`libcruft'</TT>
subdirectory, you should either upgrade your compiler or try compiling
with optimization turned off.

<LI>

On NeXT systems, if you get errors like this:


<PRE>
/usr/tmp/cc007458.s:unknown:Undefined local symbol LBB7656
/usr/tmp/cc007458.s:unknown:Undefined local symbol LBE7656
</PRE>

when compiling <TT>`Array.cc'</TT> and <TT>`Matrix.cc'</TT>, try recompiling
these files without <CODE>-g</CODE>.

<LI>

Some people have reported that calls to shell_cmd and the pager do not
work on SunOS systems.  This is apparently due to having
<CODE>G_HAVE_SYS_WAIT</CODE> defined to be 0 instead of 1 when compiling
<CODE>libstdc++</CODE>.

<LI>

On NeXT systems, linking to <TT>`libsys_s.a'</TT> may fail to resolve the
following functions


<PRE>
_tcgetattr
_tcsetattr
_tcflow
</PRE>

which are part of <TT>`libposix.a'</TT>.  Unfortunately, linking Octave with
<CODE>-posix</CODE> results in the following undefined symbols.


<PRE>
.destructors_used
.constructors_used
_objc_msgSend
_NXGetDefaultValue
_NXRegisterDefaults
.objc_class_name_NXStringTable
.objc_class_name_NXBundle
</PRE>

One kluge around this problem is to extract <TT>`termios.o'</TT> from
<TT>`libposix.a'</TT>, put it in Octave's <TT>`src'</TT> directory, and add it
to the list of files to link together in the makefile.  Suggestions for
better ways to solve this problem are welcome!

<LI>

If Octave crashes immediately with a floating point exception, it is
likely that it is failing to initialize the IEEE floating point values
for infinity and NaN.

If your system actually does support IEEE arithmetic, you should be able
to fix this problem by modifying the function <CODE>octave_ieee_init</CODE> in
the file <TT>`lo-ieee.cc'</TT> to correctly initialize Octave's internal
infinity and NaN variables.

If your system does not support IEEE arithmetic but Octave's configure
script incorrectly determined that it does, you can work around the
problem by editing the file <TT>`config.h'</TT> to not define
<CODE>HAVE_ISINF</CODE>, <CODE>HAVE_FINITE</CODE>, and <CODE>HAVE_ISNAN</CODE>.

In any case, please report this as a bug since it might be possible to
modify Octave's configuration script to automatically determine the
proper thing to do.

<LI>

After installing the binary distribution of Octave in an alternate
directory, the Emacs command <CODE>run-octave</CODE> doesn't work.  Emacs
hangs in <CODE>accept-process-output</CODE> in <CODE>inferior-octave-startup</CODE>.

This seems to be a problem with executing a shell script using the
comint package.  You can avoid the problem by changing the way Octave is
installed to eliminate the need for the shell script.  You can either
compile and install Octave using the source distribution, reinstall the
binary distribution in the default directory, or copy the commands in
the octave shell script wrapper to your shell startup files (and the
shell startup files for anyone else who is using Octave) and then
rename the file <TT>`octave.bin'</TT> to be <TT>`octave'</TT>.
</UL>



<H2><A NAME="SEC192" HREF="octave_toc.html#TOC192">Binary Distributions</A></H2>

<P>
Although Octave is not very difficult to build from its sources, it is a
relatively large program that does require a significant amount of time
and disk space to compile and install.  Because of this, many people
want to be able to obtain binary distributions so they can start using
Octave immediately, without having to bother with the details of
compiling it first.  This is understandable, so I try to maintain a
current collection of binary distributions at
@url{ftp://ftp.che.wisc.edu/pub/octave/BINARIES}.

</P>
<P>
Please understand, however, that there is only a limited amount of time
available to devote to making binaries, so binaries may not be
immediately available for some platforms.  (Please contact
@email{bug-octave@bevo.che.wisc.edu} if you are interested in helping
make a binary distribution available for your system.)

</P>



<H3><A NAME="SEC193" HREF="octave_toc.html#TOC193">Installing Octave from a Binary Distribution</A></H3>

<P>
To install Octave from a binary distribution, execute the command

</P>

<PRE>
sh ./install-octave
</PRE>

<P>
in the top level directory of the distribution.

</P>
<P>
Binary distributions are normally compiled assuming that Octave will be
installed in the following subdirectories of <TT>`/usr/local'</TT>.

</P>
<DL COMPACT>

<DT><TT>`bin'</TT>
<DD>
Octave and other binaries that people will want to run directly.

<DT><TT>`lib'</TT>
<DD>
Shared libraries that Octave needs in order to run.  These files are
not included if you are installing a statically linked version of
Octave.

<DT><TT>`man/man1'</TT>
<DD>
Unix-style man pages describing Octave.

<DT><TT>`info'</TT>
<DD>
Info files describing Octave.

<DT><TT>`share/octave/<VAR>version</VAR>/m'</TT>
<DD>
Function files distributed with Octave.  This includes the Octave
version, so that multiple versions of Octave may be installed at the
same time.

<DT><TT>`libexec/octave/<VAR>version</VAR>/exec/<VAR>arch</VAR>'</TT>
<DD>
Executables to be run by Octave rather than the user.

<DT><TT>`libexec/octave/<VAR>version</VAR>/oct/<VAR>arch</VAR>'</TT>
<DD>
Object files that will be dynamically loaded.

<DT><TT>`share/octave/<VAR>version</VAR>/imagelib'</TT>
<DD>
Image files that are distributed with Octave.
</DL>

<P>
where <VAR>version</VAR> stands for the current version number of the
interpreter, and <VAR>arch</VAR> is the type of computer on which Octave
is installed (for example, <SAMP>`i586-pc-linux-gnu'</SAMP>).

</P>
<P>
If these directories don't exist, the script <CODE>install-octave</CODE> will
create them for you.  The installation script also creates the following
subdirectories of <TT>`/usr/local'</TT> that are intended for locally
installed functions:

</P>
<DL COMPACT>

<DT><TT>`share/octave/site/m'</TT>
<DD>
Locally installed M-files.

<DT><TT>`libexec/octave/site/exec/<VAR>arch</VAR>'</TT>
<DD>
Locally installed binaries intended to be run by Octave rather than by
the user.

<DT><TT>`libexec/octave/site/octave/<VAR>arch</VAR>'</TT>
<DD>
Local object files that will be dynamically linked.
</DL>

<P>
If it is not possible for you to install Octave in <TT>`/usr/local'</TT>, or
if you would prefer to install it in a different directory, you can
specify the name of the top level directory as an argument to the
<TT>`install-octave'</TT> script.  For example:

</P>

<PRE>
sh ./install-octave /some/other/directory
</PRE>

<P>
will install Octave in subdirectories of the directory
<TT>`/some/other/directory'</TT>.

</P>


<H3><A NAME="SEC194" HREF="octave_toc.html#TOC194">Creating a Binary Distribution</A></H3>

<P>
Here is how to build a binary distribution for others to use.  If you
want to make a binary distribution for your system available along with
the Octave sources and binaries on @url{ftp.che.wisc.edu}, please follow
this procedure.  For directions explaining how to make the binary
available on the ftp site, please contact
@email{bug-octave@bevo.che.wisc.edu}.

</P>

<UL>
<LI>

Unpack the source distribution:


<PRE>
gunzip -c octave-2.0.13.tar.gz | tar xf -
</PRE>

<LI>

Change your current directory to the top-level directory of the source
distribution:


<PRE>
cd octave-2.0.13
</PRE>

<LI>

Make the binary distribution:


<PRE>
make binary-dist
</PRE>

This will create a compressed tar file ready for distribution.
It will have a name like
<TT>`octave-2.0.13-i586-pc-linux-gnu.tar.gz'</TT>
</UL>

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