Create a MacOS X App Bundle Using Homebrew
Introduction
This tutorial explains how to build Octave.app (version >4) using Homebrew. It is recommended that users either
- download Octave 4.0.1rc1 with graphical user interface (OS X 10.10+),
- download Octave 4.0.1rc1 with command line interface (OS X 10.10+)
or use a package manager as described here. The former App bundle (version <=3.8) was created using Macports and called Octave from /usr/opt/local
which is problematic with recent OS X (>=10.10). Therefore Octave.app is now installed in /Applications/Octave.app
using homebrew. It does not interfere with local installations or package managers.
Prerequisites
- Install Xcode via the Mac App Store.
- Install the command line tools by
xcode-select --install
. - Optional: install XQuartz, e.g. if you want to use Gnuplot with X11 backend.
Creating the App Bundle and Disk Image
The script at github
https://github.com/schoeps/octave_installer
will ask some questions, e.g. regarding the installation path (/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.
Known limitations
Plotting should work with gnuplot and qt backends. However, sometimes it takes a long time to initialize.