Installing GNU Octave

GNU Octave is a Matlab like open source math environment. Recently, while talking to many companies, many of them have expressed their dissatisfaction with Maltlab license. In this post I will explain how to install Octave instead, for all the open source lovers.

After breaking my head most of today, I found out that the easiest way
to install Octave on Linux is found here.

Specifically for Fedora, you just need to do

sudo yum install octave-forge

On Ubuntu, you need to

sudo apt-get install octave3.2

For MAC OS it is also easy: you can download dmg file here

If you want to work really hard, you can try to compile the
sourcess.
However, this is really not recommended!!!

After you download the tgz file, you need to run ./configure
you may get this error:

configure: error: You are required to have BLAS and LAPACK libraries

point to the right blas/lapack libs:

./configure --with-lapack="-llapack -L/usr/lib64/atlas/" --with-blas="-lblas -L/usr/lib64/atlas/" --prefix=/mnt/bigbrofs/usr6/bickson/octave/ --without-qhull

when compiling I got this error:

Range.cc:440: error: 'floor' is not a member of 'gnulib'

by reading on the web, it seems it is some gcc bug:
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/octave-bug-tracker/2011-02/msg00262.html

The way to resolve it, is either update gnulib version, or add
the appropriate header file
#include
and change gnulib::floor to floor

Next you will get about 20 such erros in different files that needs to be
setup manually.
dir-ops.cc: In member function 'bool dir_entry::open(const std::string&)':
dir-ops.cc:61: error: 'strerror' is not a member of 'gnulib'
make[3]: *** [liboctave_la-dir-ops.lo] Error 1

#include<stdlib.h>

file-ops.cc: In function 'int octave_mkdir(const std::string&, mode_t, std::string&)':
file-ops.cc:378: error: 'strerror' is not a member of 'gnulib'

file-ops.cc: In function 'int octave_rename(const std::string&, const std::string&, std::string&)':
file-ops.cc:502: error: 'rename' is not a member of 'gnulib'
make[3]: *** [liboctave_la-file-ops.lo] Error 1

lo-mappers.cc: In function 'double xtrunc(double)':
lo-mappers.cc:48: error: 'trunc' is not a member of 'gnulib'
lo-mappers.cc: In function 'double xfloor(double)':
lo-mappers.cc:53: error: 'floor' is not a member of 'gnulib'
lo-mappers.cc: In function 'double xround(double)':
lo-mappers.cc:59: error: 'round' is not a member of 'gnulib'
lo-mappers.cc: In function 'float xtrunc(float)':
lo-mappers.cc:267: error: 'truncf' is not a member of 'gnulib'
lo-mappers.cc: In function 'float xround(float)':
lo-mappers.cc:273: error: 'round' is not a member of 'gnulib'
make[3]: *** [liboctave_la-lo-mappers.lo] Error 1

lo-utils.cc: In function 'void octave_putenv(const std::string&, const std::string&)':
lo-utils.cc:93: error: 'malloc' is not a member of 'gnulib'
lo-utils.cc: In function 'std::string octave_fgets(FILE*, bool&)':
lo-utils.cc:121: error: 'malloc' is not a member of 'gnulib'
lo-utils.cc:136: error: 'realloc' is not a member of 'gnulib'

oct-env.cc: In member function 'void octave_env::error(int) const':
oct-env.cc:534: error: 'strerror' is not a member of 'gnulib'
make[3]: *** [liboctave_la-oct-env.lo] Error 1
make[3]: Leaving directory `/mnt/bigbrofs/usr7/bickson/octave-3.4.2/liboctave'
make[2]: *** [all] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory `/mnt/bigbrofs/usr7/bickson/octave-3.4.2/liboctave'
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/mnt/bigbrofs/usr7/bickson/octave-3.4.2'

ct-md5.cc: In function 'std::string oct_md5_file(std::string)':
oct-md5.cc:73: error: 'fclose' is not a member of 'gnulib'
make[3]: *** [liboctave_la-oct-md5.lo] Error 1

oct-time.cc: In constructor 'octave_time::octave_time(const octave_base_tm&)':
oct-time.cc:62: error: 'mktime' is not a member of 'gnulib'
oct-time.cc: In member function 'void octave_strptime::init(const std::string&, const std::string&)':
oct-time.cc:269: error: 'strptime' is not a member of 'gnulib'
oct-time.cc:276: error: 'mktime' is not a member of 'gnulib'

ANOTHER ERROR I GOT:
build-aux/bootstrap: libtoolize -c -f ...
libtoolize: $pkgltdldir not a directory: `/usr0/software/libtool/share/libtool'
SOLUTION: make clean, and this error disappeared

ANOTHER ERROR:
./liboctave/.libs/liboctave.so: undefined reference to `METIS_NodeComputeSeparator'
SOLUTION:
setenv LIBS "-lmetis -L/usr/cs/lib/"
and then ./configure again and compile again