Editing Create a MacOS X App Bundle Using Homebrew

{{Warning|This page is outdated (October 2019).  For more recent information, see [[Octave for macOS]].}}

==Introduction==

This tutorial explains how to build Octave.app (version >4) using [http://brew.sh Homebrew]. It is recommended that users either 

* [https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2079838/octave_gui_402.dmg?dl=0 download Octave 4.0.2 with graphical user interface]  (OS X 10.10+),
* [https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2079838/octave_cli_402.dmg?dl=0 download Octave 4.0.2 with command line interface]  (OS X 10.10+)

or use a package manager as described [http://wiki.octave.org/Octave_for_MacOS_X here]. The former App bundle (version <=3.8) was created using [http://wiki.octave.org/Create_a_MacOS_X_App_Bundle_Using_MacPorts Macports] and called Octave from {{Codeline|/usr/opt/local}} which is problematic with recent OS X (>=10.10). Therefore Octave.app is now installed in {{Codeline|/Applications/Octave.app}} using homebrew. It does not interfere with local installations or package managers.

==Prerequisites==
* Install [https://developer.apple.com/xcode/download/ Xcode] via the Mac App Store.
* Install the command line tools by {{Codeline|xcode-select --install}}.
* Optional: install [https://xquartz.macosforge.org/landing/ XQuartz], e.g. if you want to use Gnuplot with X11 backend.

==Creating the App Bundle and Disk Image==
The script "[https://raw.githubusercontent.com/schoeps/octave_installer/master/install_octave.sh install_octave.sh]" from the github repository

https://github.com/schoeps/octave_installer

will ask some questions, e.g. regarding the installation path ({{Codeline|/Applications/Octave.app}} is recommended) or whether Octave should be compiled with or without graphical user interface and finally whether a disk image should be created or not. If you choose to install to the Applications folder then the script needs to run with administration rights.

The script installs all necessary dependencies of octave via [http://brew.sh homebrew]; it's using [http://www.openblas.net openblas] instead of Apple's native implementation.

==Known limitations==
* Plotting should work with Gnuplot and Qt graphic toolkits. However, sometimes it takes a long time to initialize. 
* the application bundle is not relocatable (must be placed in the /Applications directory).
* [ctrl]+c crashes the GUI, cf. [https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?37672 Bug 37672].

[[Category:Outdated pages]]