<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Running Configure and Make - GNU Octave</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html">
<meta name="description" content="GNU Octave">
<meta name="generator" content="makeinfo 4.13">
<link title="Top" rel="start" href="index.html#Top">
<link rel="up" href="Installation.html#Installation" title="Installation">
<link rel="prev" href="Build-Dependencies.html#Build-Dependencies" title="Build Dependencies">
<link rel="next" href="Compiling-Octave-with-64_002dbit-Indexing.html#Compiling-Octave-with-64_002dbit-Indexing" title="Compiling Octave with 64-bit Indexing">
<link href="http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/" rel="generator-home" title="Texinfo Homepage">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css">
<style type="text/css"><!--
pre.display { font-family:inherit }
pre.format { font-family:inherit }
pre.smalldisplay { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller }
pre.smallformat { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller }
pre.smallexample { font-size:smaller }
pre.smalllisp { font-size:smaller }
span.sc { font-variant:small-caps }
span.roman { font-family:serif; font-weight:normal; }
span.sansserif { font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal; }
--></style>
</head>
<body>
<div class="node">
<a name="Running-Configure-and-Make"></a>
<p>
Next: <a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Compiling-Octave-with-64_002dbit-Indexing.html#Compiling-Octave-with-64_002dbit-Indexing">Compiling Octave with 64-bit Indexing</a>,
Previous: <a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="Build-Dependencies.html#Build-Dependencies">Build Dependencies</a>,
Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="Installation.html#Installation">Installation</a>
<hr>
</div>
<h3 class="section">G.2 Running Configure and Make</h3>
<ul>
<li>Run the shell script <samp><span class="file">configure</span></samp>. This will determine the features
your system has (or doesn't have) and create a file named
<samp><span class="file">Makefile</span></samp> from each of the files named <samp><span class="file">Makefile.in</span></samp>.
<p>Here is a summary of the configure options that are most frequently used
when building Octave:
<dl>
<dt><code>--help</code><dd>Print a summary of the options recognized by the configure script.
<br><dt><code>--prefix=</code><var>prefix</var><dd>Install Octave in subdirectories below <var>prefix</var>. The default value
of <var>prefix</var> is <samp><span class="file">/usr/local</span></samp>.
<br><dt><code>--srcdir=</code><var>dir</var><dd>Look for Octave sources in the directory <var>dir</var>.
<br><dt><code>--enable-64</code><dd>This is an <strong>experimental</strong> option to enable Octave to use 64-bit
integers for array dimensions and indexing on 64-bit platforms. You
probably don't want to use this option unless you know what you are
doing. See <a href="Compiling-Octave-with-64_002dbit-Indexing.html#Compiling-Octave-with-64_002dbit-Indexing">Compiling Octave with 64-bit Indexing</a>, for more details
about building Octave with this option.
<br><dt><code>--enable-bounds-check</code><dd>Enable bounds checking for indexing operators in the internal array
classes. This option is primarily used for debugging Octave. Building
Octave with this option has a negative impact on performance and is not
recommended for general use.
<br><dt><code>--disable-docs</code><dd>Disable building all forms of the documentation (Info, PDF, HTML). The
default is to build documentation, but your system will need functioning
Texinfo and TeX installs for this to succeed.
<br><dt><code>--enable-float-truncate</code><dd>This option allows for truncation of intermediate floating point results
in calculations. It is only necessary for certain platforms.
<br><dt><code>--enable-readline</code><dd>Use the readline library to provide for editing of the command line in
terminal environments. This option is on by default.
<br><dt><code>--enable-shared</code><dd>Create shared libraries (this is the default). If you are planning to
use the dynamic loading features, you will probably want to use this
option. It will make your <samp><span class="file">.oct</span></samp> files much smaller and on some
systems it may be necessary to build shared libraries in order to use
dynamically linked functions.
<p>You may also want to build a shared version of <code>libstdc++</code>, if your
system doesn't already have one.
<br><dt><code>--enable-dl</code><dd>Use <code>dlopen</code> and friends to make Octave capable of dynamically
linking externally compiled functions (this is the default if
<samp><span class="option">--enable-shared</span></samp> is specified). This option only works on
systems that actually have these functions. If you plan on using this
feature, you should probably also use <samp><span class="option">--enable-shared</span></samp> to reduce
the size of your <samp><span class="file">.oct</span></samp> files.
<br><dt><code>--with-blas=<lib></code><dd>By default, configure looks for the best <span class="sc">blas</span> matrix libraries on
your system, including optimized implementations such as the free ATLAS
3.0, as well as vendor-tuned libraries. (The use of an optimized
<span class="sc">blas</span> will generally result in several-times faster matrix
operations.) Use this option to specify a particular <span class="sc">blas</span> library
that Octave should use.
<br><dt><code>--with-lapack=<lib></code><dd>By default, configure looks for the best <span class="sc">lapack</span> matrix libraries on
your system, including optimized implementations such as the free ATLAS
3.0, as well as vendor-tuned libraries. (The use of an optimized
<span class="sc">lapack</span> will generally result in several-times faster matrix
operations.) Use this option to specify a particular <span class="sc">lapack</span>
library that Octave should use.
<br><dt><code>--with-magick=<lib></code><dd>Select the library to use for image I/O. The two possible values are
"GraphicsMagick" (default) or "ImageMagick".
<br><dt><code>--with-sepchar=<char></code><dd>Use <char> as the path separation character. This option can help when
running Octave on non-Unix systems.
<br><dt><code>--without-amd</code><dd>Don't use <span class="sc">amd</span>, disable some sparse matrix functionality.
<br><dt><code>--without-camd</code><dd>Don't use <span class="sc">camd</span>, disable some sparse matrix functionality.
<br><dt><code>--without-colamd</code><dd>Don't use <span class="sc">colamd</span>, disable some sparse matrix functionality.
<br><dt><code>--without-ccolamd</code><dd>Don't use <span class="sc">ccolamd</span>, disable some sparse matrix functionality.
<br><dt><code>--without-cholmod</code><dd>Don't use <span class="sc">cholmod</span>, disable some sparse matrix functionality.
<br><dt><code>--without-curl</code><dd>Don't use the cURL library, disable the ftp objects, <code>urlread</code> and
<code>urlwrite</code> functions.
<br><dt><code>--without-cxsparse</code><dd>Don't use <span class="sc">cxsparse</span>, disable some sparse matrix functionality.
<br><dt><code>--without-fftw3</code><dd>Use the included <span class="sc">fftpack</span> library for computing Fast Fourier
Transforms instead of the <span class="sc">fftw3</span> library.
<br><dt><code>--without-fftw3f</code><dd>Use the included <span class="sc">fftpack</span> library for computing Fast Fourier
Transforms instead of the <span class="sc">fftw3</span> library when operating on single
precision (float) values.
<br><dt><code>--without-glpk</code><dd>Don't use the <span class="sc">glpk</span> library for linear programming.
<br><dt><code>--without-hdf5</code><dd>Don't use the <span class="sc">hdf5</span> library, disable reading and writing of
<span class="sc">hdf5</span> files.
<br><dt><code>--without-opengl</code><dd>Don't use OpenGL, disable native graphics toolkit for plotting. You
will need <code>gnuplot</code> installed in order to make plots.
<br><dt><code>--without-qhull</code><dd>Don't use Qhull, disable <code>delaunay</code>, <code>convhull</code>, and
related functions.
<br><dt><code>--without-qrupdate</code><dd>Don't use <span class="sc">qrupdate</span>, disable QR and Cholesky update functions.
<br><dt><code>--without-umfpack</code><dd>Don't use <span class="sc">umfpack</span>, disable some sparse matrix functionality.
<br><dt><code>--without-zlib</code><dd>Don't use the zlib library, disable data file compression and support
for recent MAT file formats.
<br><dt><code>--without-framework-carbon</code><dd>Don't use framework Carbon headers, libraries, or specific source code
even if the configure test succeeds (the default is to use Carbon
framework if available). This is a platform specific configure option
for Mac systems.
<br><dt><code>--without-framework-opengl</code><dd>Don't use framework OpenGL headers, libraries, or specific source code
even if the configure test succeeds. If this option is given then
OpenGL headers and libraries in standard system locations are tested
(the default value is <samp><span class="option">--with-framework-opengl</span></samp>). This is a
platform specific configure option for Mac systems.
</dl>
<p>See the file <samp><span class="file">INSTALL</span></samp> for more general information about the
command line options used by configure. That file also contains
instructions for compiling in a directory other than the one where
the source is located.
<li>Run make.
<p>You will need a recent version of GNU Make as Octave relies on certain
features not generally available in all versions of make. Modifying
Octave's makefiles to work with other make programs is probably not
worth your time; instead, we simply recommend installing GNU Make.
<p>There are currently two options for plotting in Octave: (1) the external
program gnuplot, or (2) the internal graphics engine using OpenGL and
FLTK. Gnuplot is a command-driven interactive function plotting
program. Gnuplot is copyrighted, but freely distributable. As of
Octave release 3.4, gnuplot is the default option for plotting. But,
the internal graphics engine is nearly 100% compatible, certainly for
most ordinary plots, and users are encouraged to test it. It is
anticipated that the internal engine will become the default option at
the next major release of Octave.
<p>To compile Octave, you will need a recent version of <code>g++</code> or other
ANSI C++ compiler. In addition, you will need a Fortran 77 compiler or
<code>f2c</code>. If you use <code>f2c</code>, you will need a script like
<code>fort77</code> that works like a normal Fortran compiler by combining
<code>f2c</code> with your C compiler in a single script.
<p>If you plan to modify the parser you will also need GNU <code>bison</code> and
<code>flex</code>. If you modify the documentation, you will need GNU
Texinfo.
<p>GNU Make, <code>gcc</code> (and <code>libstdc++</code>), <code>gnuplot</code>,
<code>bison</code>, <code>flex</code>, and Texinfo are all available from many
anonymous ftp archives. The primary site is <a href="ftp.gnu.org">ftp.gnu.org</a>, but it
is often very busy. A list of sites that mirror the software on
<a href="ftp.gnu.org">ftp.gnu.org</a> is available by anonymous ftp from
<a href="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/GNUinfo/FTP">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/GNUinfo/FTP</a>.
<p>Octave requires approximately 1.4 GB of disk storage to unpack and
compile from source (significantly less, 400 MB, if you don't compile
with debugging symbols). To compile without debugging symbols try the
command
<pre class="example"> make CFLAGS=-O CXXFLAGS=-O LDFLAGS=
</pre>
<p class="noindent">instead of just <samp><span class="command">make</span></samp>.
<li>If you encounter errors while compiling Octave, first check the list of
known problems below to see if there is a workaround or solution for
your problem. If not,
see <a href="Trouble.html#Trouble">Trouble</a>,
for information about how to report bugs.
<li>Once you have successfully compiled Octave, run <code>make install</code>.
<p>This will install a copy of Octave, its libraries, and its documentation
in the destination directory. As distributed, Octave is installed in
the following directories. In the table below, <var>prefix</var> defaults to
<samp><span class="file">/usr/local</span></samp>, <var>version</var> stands for the current version number
of the interpreter, and <var>arch</var> is the type of computer on which
Octave is installed (for example, ‘<samp><span class="samp">i586-unknown-gnu</span></samp>’).
<dl>
<dt><samp><var>prefix</var><span class="file">/bin</span></samp><dd>Octave and other binaries that people will want to run directly.
<br><dt><samp><var>prefix</var><span class="file">/lib/octave-</span><var>version</var></samp><dd>Libraries like libcruft.a and liboctave.a.
<br><dt><samp><var>prefix</var><span class="file">/octave-</span><var>version</var><span class="file">/include/octave</span></samp><dd>Include files distributed with Octave.
<br><dt><samp><var>prefix</var><span class="file">/share</span></samp><dd>Architecture-independent data files.
<br><dt><samp><var>prefix</var><span class="file">/share/man/man1</span></samp><dd>Unix-style man pages describing Octave.
<br><dt><samp><var>prefix</var><span class="file">/share/info</span></samp><dd>Info files describing Octave.
<br><dt><samp><var>prefix</var><span class="file">/share/octave/</span><var>version</var><span class="file">/m</span></samp><dd>Function files distributed with Octave. This includes the Octave
version, so that multiple versions of Octave may be installed at the
same time.
<br><dt><samp><var>prefix</var><span class="file">/libexec/octave/</span><var>version</var><span class="file">/exec/</span><var>arch</var></samp><dd>Executables to be run by Octave rather than the user.
<br><dt><samp><var>prefix</var><span class="file">/lib/octave/</span><var>version</var><span class="file">/oct/</span><var>arch</var></samp><dd>Object files that will be dynamically loaded.
<br><dt><samp><var>prefix</var><span class="file">/share/octave/</span><var>version</var><span class="file">/imagelib</span></samp><dd>Image files that are distributed with Octave.
</dl>
</ul>
</body></html>
