Short projects

This is a collection of small projects to start contributing to Octave. Projects of long duration are listed in the Projects page.

If you never contributed to Octave before, we suggest to start with our Developer FAQ.

Review and fix existing bugs

• Review bugs that catch your interest on the Octave bug tracker on GNU Savannah.
  • A modern interface to the Octave bug tracker is given by SavannahAPI.
• Discuss with the developers there how to fix that bug or upload a patch there.
• Some bugs have already patches attached.
  • Help testing those patches.
  • Help updating outdated patches to the latest development version (this requires some Mercurial knowledge).

Implement missing Matlab functions

Use the Savannah patch tracker for submissions unrelated to an existing bug.

Write Built-In Self Tests (BISTs)

Writing BISTs improves Octave's regression testing and ensures that we don't break anything when we add new features.

• BIST for C++ functions
• BIST for m-files. See also Projects#Tests.

Work on Octave packages

• Take a look at https://gnu-octave.github.io/packages/ if you would like to work on some package there.

Easy Closes

Below is a non exhaustive list of bugs which should be looked at and appear to be easy Completed scrub using 6.1 as non expert.

Notes:

• The last full scrub came from hardy for v4.2
• Suspect many java bugs could be closed.
• Appears plotting bugs have been fixed, but not have been reviewed for 5 years.
• Did not include most documentation bugs.
• Experts: rik5, nrjank, etc. will be able to find significantly more to close.

bug	bug title	status
#36954	datenum / datevec convert date-time string incorrectly during hour lost to DST	siko1056 suggests closing as won't fix. philipnienhuis changed to Postponed and expresses interest in revisiting.
#40357	OOM when converting from sparse double to sparse logical	hardy thinks this might be a DUPLICATE, nrjank changed to Need Info, needs better test to determine if the OOM comes from known sparse indexing issue or something else.
#43717	rats LEN Matlab incompatibility	riks states wouldn't bother to fix this as Octave's solution seems better, but points out that default length has changed and Octave should perhaps follow that change.
#45404	Breakpoints cannot be set in classdef methods or +package function files	package part fixed. classdef part remains. jwe suggest closing either this or #46451 and tracking classdef on the one that remains, or close both and make a new report. changed to Need Info for someone familiar to decide what would be best for tracking the issue after 2 yrs of dormancy.
#48088	document that issquare, iscolumn, isempty, etc operate on cell arrays	documentation patch candidate submitted and needs review.
#49886	ezplot: octave does not warn when function not vectorized	Rik states This would be easy to fix if #42691 was first solved. This bug was closed August 2021
#49360	odeset lacks documentation for solver options	Needs someone to review and make a to-do list.
#51560	[octave forge] (communications) Wrong dimension in pskmod.m output	nrjank had a solution for the bug (not attached), but stopped for more improvements.
#53214	area.m needs update to implement ShowBaseline and other properties	nrjank states the main bug has been fixed. Suggests closing or retitle
#53670	subplot handle changes after window resizing	nrjank suggests this was fixed in fixed between 6.1 and 6.3
#54437	optimset missing documentation for 5 options	rik states AutoScaling, ComplexEqn, and Updating can be copied from fsolve.m so this would be an improvement.
#54679	datenum accepts a matrix, which is undocumented	apjanke provided a patch. patch updated to current default tip and nrjank suggests ready to push.
#55065	Implement uiopen and uisave	rik states they would be easy to implement
#56208	GUI Editor autocomplete list could show variables from current workspace	appears to be fixed
#57352	text height for blank line should approximate that of ordinary character	rik thinks this will be quick
#58530	missing functions: xline() and yline()	rik states I can dust them off and add them to Octave - updated unimplemented_functions list but has postponed attention until after v7.1.
#59004	[octave forge] (communications) Error when trying to build (constness of cat op args)	ready to close nir_krakauer added the patch and the newest communications package v 1.2.3
#59466	[octave forge] (communications) de2bi improper input handling	ready to close nir_krakauer added the patch and the newest communications package v 1.2.3

The equivalent suggestions for patches.

patch	patch title	status

A list of patch reports with attachments not marked "Done or Cancelled" can be viewed in the SavannaAPI, sorted by oldest first or sorted by "longest since last comment" first. While some of these older submissions may still be viable and just need a patch refresh to the current code base, many will have become out of date or rendered inapplicable due to code or function changes, and could be closed as 'Wont Fix'.

See also

• Projects