RE: MXE-Octave & release candidates

[John D]

-----Original Message-----
From: Philip Nienhuis [mailto:address@hidden 
Sent: Tuesday, November 05, 2013 2:00 PM
To: John Donoghue
Cc: address@hidden; Rik
Subject: Re: MXE-Octave & release candidates

John Donoghue wrote:
>
>> Message: 8
>> Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2013 13:19:44 -0800 (PST)
>> From: PhilipNienhuis<address@hidden>
>> To:address@hidden
>> Subject: Re: MXE-Octave & release candidates 
>> Message-ID:<address@hidden>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>>
>> Rik-4 wrote
>>> >On 11/03/2013 10:00 AM,
>>> >octave-maintainers-request@
>>> > wrote:
>>>> >>Message: 2
>>>> >>Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2013 08:02:15 -0800 (PST)
>>>> >>From: PhilipNienhuis &lt;
>>> >pr.nienhuis@
>>> >&gt;
>>>> >>To:
>>> >octave-maintainers@
>>>> >>Subject: Re: 'make distcheck' passing
>>>> >>Message-ID: <
>>> >address@hidden
>>>> >>
>>>> >>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>>>> >>
>>>> >>Rik-4 wrote
>>>>>> >>> >11/2/13
>>>>>> >>> >
>>>>>> >>> >At least on a Linux system the build system can successfully
>>>>>> create
>>>>>> >>> >release
>>>>>> >>> >candidates. There is still a problem with some of the images
>>>>>> in the
>>>>>> >>> >manual
>>>>>> >>> >that have legends. But, I think it would not hurt to start
>>>>>> trying to
>>>>>> >>> >build
>>>>>> >>> >a release candidate through MXE-Octave; This is bound to
>>>>>> expose more
>>>>>> >>> >issues.
>>>> >>What do you mean exactly with "release candidate"? A binary
>>>> distribution
>>>> >>that can be installed on Windows?
>>> >I simply want us to get started on this process early because it
>>> involves
>>> >two additional steps to get right 1) MXE-Octave build needs to 
>>> >work, 2) Windows Installer needs to package MXE-Octave.
>> I'm not sure I can follow here.
>>
>> The MXE-octave build does work, although (Windows) not natively (that 
>> is, not completely) and the cross-version has issues with llvm (and 
>> possibly OpenBlas on my box). I can't vouch for Mac OSX builds from 
>> mxe-octave but from what I've read it needs attention too.
>>
>> The Windows installer's only purpose is to package a compiled Octave 
>> and all built dependencies (runtime libs) + some support SW (awk, 
>> makeinfo, sed, gcc, etc), in order to be able to install & run Octave 
>> on Windows. No more no less.
>>
>> Given the fact that Windows offers a fairly homogeneous runtime 
>> environment to SW (with some exceptions as regards Win 8), much 
>> unlike the more fragmented Linux and *nix world where every distro 
>> has its unique combo of SW and SW versions, I think there's no need 
>> for rigorous testing at the make distcheck level for Windows builds. 
>> Rigorous testing of the binary's correctness and performance should 
>> do.
>> On Windows Octave runs fairly self-contained and somewhat isolated 
>> from the rest of the system, MinGW versions probably more than MSVC 
>> versions. From what I've seen at work I think user priviliges (or 
>> rather lack thereof) could pose more of a problem at execution time 
>> given the large number of individual small .exe files in /bin.
>>
>>
>>> >Each step could have
>>> >problems that might cause delay. For example, I know that 
>>> >gnuplot-4.6.1 was being used in one of the MXE builds and this 
>>> >needs to be updated
>>> to at
>>> >least 4.6.2 to solve a problem reported on Savannah. Second, we 
>>> >should avoid gcc-4.8.2 in the MXE build.
>> On yesterday's MXE build (with latest updates for mxe-octave & Octave):
>>
>>>> >>system ("gnuplot --version")
>> gnuplot 4.6 patchlevel 1
>> ans = 0
>>
>> so that needs updating;
>>
>>>> >>system ("gcc --version")
>> gcc (GCC) 4.8.1
>>
>> ==> at least you don't need to worry about gcc:-)
>>
>> Philip
> I've updated llvm to 3.3 and got it working again in cross compile and 
> updated gnuplot to 4.6.4.
>
> Both appear to work on my native Win7 and Fedora 16 mingw cross build.

Did you push the changes?

If so I'll pull and give it a try tonight.

Usually with updates of dependencies I have to carefully clean up the
MXE-tree - starting over from scratch is a very time-consuming affair. 
Especially for small packages this gets out of balance - like 4 hrs building
of a complete mxe-octave where the updated package in question builds within
a minute.
Luckily llvm didn't get compiled at all here yet, so that will be no
problem. With gnuplot it may be different.

Philip
---

I pushed yesterday.

Gnuplot is a standalone application so should be quick to build it.