Octave for macOS

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Revision as of 06:20, 29 April 2022 by Siko1056 (talk | contribs) (→‎Package Managers: Make installation instructions more comparable.)
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On macOS systems GNU Octave can be installed by:

  1. macOS App Bundles "Octave.app" (a single dmg-file)
  2. macOS package managers.
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GNU Octave 9.1.0 is the current stable release.

macOS App Bundles

The Octave.app project provides an unofficial ready-to-use, drag-and-drop macOS App installer based on Homebrew (see below).

A very old installer is hosted on SourceForge.

Package Managers

All package managers below are given in alphabetical order. The Octave developers do not recommend a certain package manager.

Anaconda

Link to Octave package there.

Follow the Anaconda installation instructions.

In the Terminal App type:

 conda create --name octave
 conda activate octave
 conda install -c conda-forge octave
 
 octave --gui

Homebrew

Link to Octave package there.

Install GNU Octave using Homebrew:

Follow the Homebrew installation instructions.

In the Terminal App type:

 brew update
 brew upgrade
 brew install octave
 
 octave --gui

In case of trouble try brew doctor, see the Homebrew Troubleshooting Guide.

MacPorts

Link to Octave package there.

Follow the MacPorts installation instructions.

In the Terminal App type:

 sudo port selfupdate
 sudo port upgrade outdated
 sudo port install octave
 
 octave --gui

Spack

Link to Octave package there.

Spack is a package management tool that supports the installation of multiple versions of software on macOS and other operating systems. It was created 2013 by Todd Gamblin and is currently being updated and developed by a large list of contributors (mainly via GitHub).

Install GNU Octave using Spack:

  1. Install Xcode via the Mac App Store.
  2. Follow Spack tutorial.
  3. Update Spack by going to the local Spack repository (develop branch) folder and run
    git pull
  4. Install Octave
    spack install octave
  5. To use Octave we need to first load the package
    spack load octave
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The entire installation process can take up to a few hours. Octave has many dependencies which will be downloaded and installed prior to Octave.

In case of trouble, please visit the Spack repo issues list, and browse through Octave related issues by writing is:issue octave in the filters box.

Create a launcher app with the Script Editor

For example Homebrew installs Octave to /usr/local/bin/octave by default. From the Terminal application you can enter the command which octave to find out the exact location.

If you know the installation location, open the Script Editor application and write the following text in the editor window:

do shell script "/usr/local/bin/octave --gui"

if you wish to start the Octave GUI by default. If you want to start the Octave command-line interface (CLI), enter instead:

tell application "Terminal"
 do script "/usr/local/bin/octave; exit"
end tell

or if Octave is in your default path:

tell application "Terminal"
 do script "`which octave`; exit"
end tell

Finally:

  • With a script open in the Script Editor app on your Mac, choose "File > Export".
  • In the menu that appears, select "Application" from the "File format" menu, then navigate to the "Applications" folder and save your script there as "Octave.app"

To change the application icon:

  • Open this link in a web browser, right-click and select "copy image".
  • Select "Octave.app" in the Finder, then press command-i to bring up the file info dialog.
  • In the file info dialog, select the icon (in the top left) and press command-v to paste the Octave icon over it.

See also

Footnotes