Editing Octave for Debian systems

For Debian, and Debian based distributions such as Ubuntu, specific solutions.

== Pre-compiled binaries ==

Binary packages for Octave and many Octave-Forge packages are provided by all versions of Debian and Ubuntu. These are the most well-tested binaries available and should work best for most users.

 sudo apt-get install octave

Aside the {{codeline|octave}} package that installs GNU Octave, other pieces of it are split over multiple packages. These are {{codeline|octave-doc}}, {{codeline|octave-info}}, and {{codeline|octave-htmldoc}} for the documentation; {{codeline|liboctave-dev}} for the octave development header files and mkoctfile, which are required to install Octave Forge packages; and {{codeline|octave-dbg}} for the debugging symbols.

For Debian stable users, there may also be newer packages available in backports, so don't forget to check there.

=== Octave's Personal Package Archive (PPA) for Ubuntu ===

For some Ubuntu releases the octave packages are too old (Ubuntu 12.04 only has Octave version 3.2).  The [https://launchpad.net/~octave GNU Octave Team] on Launchpad maintains a PPA providing more up to date packages of Octave for all versions of Ubuntu. These are backported from Debian unstable (the Ubuntu Octave Team needs help testing and preparing the packages so if you can help with this, contact [Mike Miller|User:Mtmiller]). To set up your system to install these packages:

 sudo apt-add-repository ppa:octave/stable
 sudo apt-get update
 sudo apt-get install octave

== Compiling from source ==

The only ''tricky'' part is to install the dependencies. Once that is solved, installing from source should be as easy as {{Codeline|./configure && make && make install}}. See the manual for the [http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/doc/interpreter/Running-Configure-and-Make.html configure options].

=== Install dependencies ===

Note that different Debian and Ubuntu versions may have slightly different package names but their differences should be pretty small, mostly limited to version numbers.

==== The easy way (but possibly incomplete) ====

The easy way to install ''most'' of the necessary dependencies is to {{Codeline|sudo apt-get build-dep octave}}. This will install all packages necessary to build and prepare a Debian package for the octave version available on your system repositories. However:
* will install unnecessary packages related to the building of a Debian package;
* may miss some new dependencies;
* may install packages that are no longer octave dependencies.

==== The even easier way ====

The [[MXE|MXE-octave]] package provides a way to compile Octave for different platforms. Dependencies and certain flags are handled automatically.

==== The right way ====

The best way is to select and install all the dependencies as listed in the {{Path|INSTALL.OCTAVE}} file. The following are their package names in Debian repositories (they will have their own dependencies which your package maintainer will solve automatically). If you are building development versions, you'll require some more packages as listed on {{Path|etc/HACKING}} and {{Path|INSTALL}}. Many of them will already be installed on your system. Install the dependencies by typing

 sudo apt-get install

followed by the package names of the table below.

:{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Dependency        !! Debian 8 Jessie (stable)             !! Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr (LTS)
|-
| '''Required''' build tools
||
[https://packages.debian.org/jessie/gcc gcc]
[https://packages.debian.org/jessie/g++ g++]
[https://packages.debian.org/jessie/gfortran gfortran]
[https://packages.debian.org/jessie/make make]
||
[http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/gcc gcc]
[http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/g++ g++]
[http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/gfortran gfortran]
[http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/make make]
|-
| '''Required''' external packages
||
[https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libblas-dev libblas-dev]
[https://packages.debian.org/jessie/liblapack-dev liblapack-dev]
[https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libpcre3-dev libpcre3-dev]
||
[http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libblas-dev libblas-dev]
[http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/liblapack-dev liblapack-dev]
[http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libpcre3-dev libpcre3-dev]
|-
| '''Optional''' build tools for the development version
||
[https://packages.debian.org/jessie/autoconf autoconf]
[https://packages.debian.org/jessie/automake automake]
[https://packages.debian.org/jessie/bison bison]
[https://packages.debian.org/jessie/flex flex]
[https://packages.debian.org/jessie/gperf gperf]
[https://packages.debian.org/jessie/gzip gzip]
[https://packages.debian.org/jessie/icoutils icoutils]
[https://packages.debian.org/jessie/librsvg2-bin librsvg2-bin]
[https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libtool libtool]
[https://packages.debian.org/jessie/perl perl]
[https://packages.debian.org/jessie/rsync rsync]
[https://packages.debian.org/jessie/tar tar]
||
[http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/autoconf autoconf]
[http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/automake automake]
[http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/bison bison]
[http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/flex flex]
[http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/gperf gperf]
[http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/gzip gzip]
[http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/icoutils icoutils]
[http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/librsvg2-bin librsvg2-bin]
[http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libtool libtool]
[http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/perl perl]
[http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/rsync rsync]
[http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/tar tar]
|-
|colspan="3"| '''Optional''', but ''strongly'' recommended. Check the [http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/doc/interpreter/External-Packages.html Octave manual] for more information on them.
|-
| ARPACK
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libarpack2-dev libarpack2-dev]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libarpack2-dev libarpack2-dev]
|-
| cURL
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libcurl4-gnutls-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libcurl4-gnutls-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev]
|-
| epstool
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/epstool epstool]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/epstool epstool]
|-
| FFTW3
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libfftw3-dev libfftw3-dev]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libfftw3-dev libfftw3-dev]
|-
| fig2dev
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/transfig transfig]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/transfig transfig]
|-
| FLTK
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libfltk-dev libfltk-dev *]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libfltk-dev libfltk-dev *]
|-
| fontconfig
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libfontconfig1-dev libfontconfig1-dev]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libfontconfig1-dev libfontconfig1-dev]
|-
| FreeType
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libfreetype6-dev libfreetype6-dev]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libfreetype6-dev libfreetype6-dev]
|-
| gl2ps
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libgl2ps-dev libgl2ps-dev]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libgl2ps-dev libgl2ps-dev]
|-
| GLPK
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libglpk-dev libglpk-dev]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libglpk-dev libglpk-dev]
|-
| GNU Readline
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libreadline-dev libreadline-dev]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libreadline-dev libreadline-dev]
|-
| gnuplot
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/gnuplot gnuplot]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/gnuplot gnuplot]
|-
| GraphicsMagick++
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libgraphicsmagick++-dev libgraphicsmagick++-dev *]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libgraphicsmagick++-dev libgraphicsmagick++-dev *]
|-
| HDF5
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libhdf5-serial-dev libhdf5-serial-dev]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libhdf5-serial-dev libhdf5-serial-dev]
|-
| Java JDK
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/openjdk-7-jdk openjdk-7-jdk]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/openjdk-7-jdk openjdk-7-jdk]
|-
| libsndfile
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libsndfile1-dev libsndfile1-dev]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libsndfile1-dev libsndfile1-dev]
|-
| LLVM
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/llvm-dev llvm-dev]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/llvm-dev llvm-dev]
|-
| lpr
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/lpr lpr]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/lpr lpr]
|-
| makeinfo
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/texinfo texinfo]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/texinfo texinfo]
|-
| OpenGL
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libgl-dev libgl-dev *]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libgl-dev libgl-dev *]
|-
| OSMesa
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libosmesa6-dev libosmesa6-dev]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libosmesa6-dev libosmesa6-dev]
|-
| pstoedit
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/pstoedit pstoedit]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/pstoedit pstoedit]
|-
| PortAudio
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/portaudio19-dev portaudio19-dev]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/portaudio19-dev portaudio19-dev]
|-
| Qhull
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libqhull-dev libqhull-dev]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libqhull-dev libqhull-dev]
|-
| QRUPDATE
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libqrupdate-dev libqrupdate-dev]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libqrupdate-dev libqrupdate-dev]
|-
| QScintilla
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libqscintilla2-dev libqscintilla2-dev]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libqscintilla2-dev libqscintilla2-dev]
|-
| Qt
||
[https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libqt4-dev libqt4-dev]
[https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libqtcore4 libqtcore4]
[https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libqtwebkit4 libqtwebkit4]
[https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libqt4-network libqt4-network]
[https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libqtgui4 libqtgui4]
||
[http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libqt4-dev libqt4-dev]
[http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libqtcore4 libqtcore4]
[http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libqtwebkit4 libqtwebkit4]
[http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libqt4-network libqt4-network]
[http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libqtgui4 libqtgui4]
|-
| SuiteSparse
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libsuitesparse-dev libsuitesparse-dev]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libsuitesparse-dev libsuitesparse-dev]
|-
| Xft
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/libxft-dev libxft-dev]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libxft-dev libxft-dev]
|-
| zlib
|| [https://packages.debian.org/jessie/zlib1g-dev zlib1g-dev]
|| [http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/zlib1g-dev zlib1g-dev]
|-
|}

Packages marked with * in the table above are virtual packages (you'll have to pick one of the displayed versions).

{{Note|if only the native graphics toolkit will be used, gnuplot will not be necessary.}}

{{Warning|<ul><li>The Debian repositoriy has several libraries for dealing with HDF data files. The recommended is {{Codeline|libhdf5-serial-dev}}. However, the {{Forge|msh|msh package}} requires [http://www.geuz.org/gmsh/ gmsh] which is incompatible with it.</li>
<li>The GraphicsMagick++ library (libgraphicsmagick++-dev) on the Debian repositories was compiled with quantum 8 which limits reading images to 8 bit. The solution is to recompile [[GraphicsMagick]] with quantum 16 or 32 before building Octave.</li></ul>}}

=== Configuration ===

==== HDF5 issue ====

With current Debian versions you may get the following when building from source:

 HDF5 library not found.  Octave will not be able to save or load HDF5 data files.

The problem is that there are multiple versions of the hdf5 package.  Octave was written with the serial version in mind but it is likely to work with the others (OpenMPI and Mpich). Due to the naming scheme done in Debian, it is required to specify the location of the libraries.  See bug {{bug|38928}} for details but basically, use the following when running configure:

 ./configure CPPFLAGS=-I/usr/include/hdf5/serial LDFLAGS=-L/usr/lib/$(dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_MULTIARCH)/hdf5/serial

[[Category:Building]]
[[Category:Installation]]
[[Category:Debian]]