GNU Octave Wiki

GNU Octave is a high-level interpreted language, primarily intended for numerical computations. It provides capabilities for the numerical solution of linear and nonlinear problems, and for performing other numerical experiments. It also provides extensive graphics capabilities for data visualization and manipulation. The program is named after Octave Levenspiel, a former professor of the principal author. GNU Octave is normally used through its interactive interface (CLI and GUI), but it can also be used to write non-interactive programs. The project was conceived around 1988 and at first it was intended to be a companion to a chemical reactor design course. The GNU Octave language is largely compatible to Matlab so that most programs are easily portable. In addition, functions known from the C standard library and from UNIX system calls and functions are supported. C/C++ and Fortran code can be called from Octave by creating Oct-Files, or using Matlab compatible Mex-Files.

Installing

Installation instructions for:

• macOS
• GNU/Linux, Android, and other Unix systems
• Microsoft Windows

Get installers and sources from https://www.octave.org/download.

GNU Octave 9.3.0 is the current stable release.

Are you using an old version of Octave? Check the Release History page to see how old it is.

News

• April 24, 2020 — GNU Octave is applying for Google Season of Docs 2020. More information.
• February 21, 2020 — GNU Octave is a mentor organization for Google Summer of Code 2020. More information.
• December 12, 2024 — GNU Octave 9.3.0 has been released (see above)!

Getting help

• Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
• GNU Octave documentation
• Other support options

Getting started

• Books
• Videos
• Short course

Octave Forge is a collection of high quality packages for GNU Octave.

Packages / Octave Forge

• Installing packages
• Creating packages
• Octave Forge — A collection of high quality packages for GNU Octave.

Development

We always need more help improving Octave and there are many ways you can contribute. You can help by fixing bugs, developing new features, answering questions on the mailing list or IRC channel, helping to improve this wiki or other web pages.

• Get an overview about the GNU Octave development.
• Take a look at our project ideas and Summer of Code project ideas.

Academia

• Publications using Octave — A compilation of scientific publications making reference to GNU Octave (add yours!).

External Links

• Octave Homepage
• Octave Forge
• Bug Tracker
• Task Tracker
• Patch Tracker
• Development Repositories
• Planet Octave - A collection of blog feeds featuring Octave developers and Summer of Code students.