Re: compiling octave-2.1.46

[Dan Hitt]

Hi Avraham,

I see that Paul Kienzle has answered the change log question (which
is good, because i couldn't).

Now regarding your procedure:

>  1-Download and install somewhere gcc-3.2.2: Did that and installed
>  it in /usr/local/gcc-3.2.2. I have there some executables (notably
>  gcc, g++, g77 -also some others whose role is unknown to me). There
>  are some libraries and some include files as well.

>  2-Configure and make octave-2.1.44 with options
>  CC=/usr/local/gcc-3.2.2/bin/gcc, CXX=/usr/local/gcc-3.2.2/bin/g++,
>  LD_LIBRARRY_PATH=/usr/local/gcc-3.2.2/lib/. Install it

> 3-Set LD_LIBRARRY_PATH to /usr/local/gcc-3.2.2/lib/ everytime before
> starting octave (By the way, do I have to reset it after leaving the
> program ?)

This is not exactly what i would do, but i think it's mostly correct.

For step 2, i would start a shell and make absolutely certain that
/usr/local/gcc-3.2.2/bin was the first entry in PATH, and also
set LD_LIBRARY_PATH as you've indicated.  (gcc invokes other programs,
and although presumably it will invoke the right ones, if the PATH
is right there's no question.)  PATH=/usr/local/gcc-3.2.2/bin:$PATH
would do it, i think, but try it and check to be sure.  (Try it,
and then type `type gcc'.)  And in this case you don't have to set
CC and CXX.  And make using the same shell.

Further in step 2, i think you want to use the option --with-g77
so that you'll pick up a fortran compiler which is compatible with
your c compiler.  (And if you've set your PATH correctly, it will
pick up the g77 which comes with gcc-3.2.2.)

Also in step 2, you might want to use prefix=/my/path if you want
to install in any location besides the default.

I believe it is not necessary to configure and build in the source
directory (for 2.1.44 it certainly isn't), and in general it is
best (imho) to do configure and make in a new, fresh, empty directory.
So the command is something like
../../..../path...../octave-2.1.39/configure --prefix=/a/b/c etc etc
after you have PATH set and so on.  (You can pack it all into
one command if you're inclined to: PATH=**** ../../...configure ...)

For step 3, i'd start a shell with LD_LIBRARY_PATH set correctly,
run octave, and then end the shell when octave is done if you're
worried about the effect of LD_LIBRARY_PATH on other programs.

(Now, as i said, i wouldn't install gcc-3.2.2 in /usr/local, but
in a separate account, so that i could be sure that /usr is exactly
the same as when the os was built.  This way you need root access
only once, when you set up a new account to hold gcc-3.2.2.  And
i'd build octave in another new account, so that if i messed it up,
there'd be no system files that could have been touched.  But
since you've already built gcc-3.2.2, i wouldn't change it, especially
if it's an older machine that takes a long time and lots of disk
access to build it.  And my preferences certainly aren't any
kind of widely-held standard.)

Good luck.

dan



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