Re: Building on OSX without package managers

[Ben Abbott]

On Jan 24, 2011, at 6:24 PM, Richard Campbell wrote:

> All,
> 
> My coworkers and I rely heavily on Octave.app from octave.sourceforge.net and 
> I am becoming concerned that it's not being actively maintained. I am willing 
> to take over the building of Octave.app from source but I'm having trouble 
> with it and I want to know what the state of the art is for compiling Octave 
> on OSX. 
> 
> I need a solution that doesn't require a third party package manager like 
> Fink or Macports at either compile or runtime. I don't mind installing 
> compile-time dependencies on one machine, but once I compile it I'd like to 
> be able to package it up and run it on other Macs (like the existing 
> Octave.app). Can Octave.app be built easily once Octave builds?
> 
> I've seen mention of a Readme.MacOS file on this board. Neither the current 
> stable or testing source distributions from 
> http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/download.html have this file included in 
> them although I found the one at 
> http://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/file/e0e50f48df37/README.MacOS and it 
> still says "TODO - add instructions" under "Building without a package 
> manager".
> 
> I would very much like to be able to address variables larger than 2 GB on my 
> machine with >>2 GB of RAM, so at a bare minimum I'd like to be able to 
> compile Octave for myself with --enable-64.
> 
> Some nitpicks about what I've seen so far in trying to compile Octave from 
> source:
> - Why shouldn't the included versions of autoconf, automake, readline, sed 
> &c. be sufficient for compiling Octave?
> - I don't want Aquaterm to be the default, as X11 does just fine and is 
> installed by default on all new Macs, and Aquaterm at first glance hasn't 
> been maintained in about 5 years.
> - The recommended Fortran compiler, which I already use for other things, 
> gives the first 'configure' error when I try to build Octave from source. 
> It's a different error wither or not I try --enable-64, but they're both 
> about integer size.
> 
> R Campbell


Welcome to the list.

I've been working on the README.MacOS file, and would greatly appreciate help 
in completing the TODO's. I hope to update the current version soon. 
Unfortunately, the update will  not include instructions on how to build Octave 
*without* Fink or Macports.

In the past, Thomas Trieichl had volunteered his time and effort to provide 
binary releases for MacOS. I've cc'd him in the event he would like to comment.

It's a bit dated, but in 2007 Thomas provided some documentation for how he 
built the app for MacOS.

        
https://mailman.cae.wisc.edu/pipermail/octave-maintainers/2007-May/006648.html

Today things will be more difficult as MacOS 10.6 runs both 32 and 64 bit apps. 
This requires some special attention to ensure that the proper libraries are 
linked to. As a result, Thomas' instructions will not likely be sufficient, but 
should provide a good starting point.

Michael Godfrey offered some additional information back in January.

        
https://mailman.cae.wisc.edu/pipermail/octave-maintainers/2010-January/018352.html

In the last few days Jarno Rajahalme also added some advice for building for 
64bit.

        
https://mailman.cae.wisc.edu/pipermail/octave-maintainers/2011-January/022393.html

Regarding your questions,

> - Why shouldn't the included versions of autoconf, automake, readline, sed 
> &c. be sufficient for compiling Octave?

The simple answer, is that the versions of the tools bundled with MacOS/Xcode 
are dated and do not include the functionality needed to build Octave. However, 
I'm not sure about sed, as I don't know what version is needed. It is possible 
that a inspired volunteer could modify the build process so that the tools 
provided by Apple are sufficient, but as these tools are only needed to build 
Octave, and are readily available, I don't see sufficient motivation for this 
change.

> - I don't want Aquaterm to be the default, as X11 does just fine and is 
> installed by default on all new Macs, and Aquaterm at first glance hasn't 
> been maintained in about 5 years.

The default terminal used by Gnuplot is easily modified by setting the 
environment variable "GNUTERM". If you place the following in ~/.octaverc then 
x11 will be used instead of aqua.

        setenv ("GNUTERM", "x11")

> - The recommended Fortran compiler, which I already use for other things, 
> gives the first 'configure' error when I try to build Octave from source. 
> It's a different error wither or not I try --enable-64, but they're both 
> about integer size.

I assume you are not using Fink or Macports, but have installed Xcode. Since 
Xcode does not include a fortran compiler, one must be installed. You can 
install a fortran compiler, which is compatible with Apple's version of gcc 
(bundled with Xcode), from the link below.

        http://r.research.att.com/tools/

Ben