Re: Octave crashes on old MEX-files: how can I detect/prevent this?

[Mike Miller]

On Wed, Dec 07, 2016 at 08:50:00 +0100, Julien Bect wrote:
> But isn't this a serious problem for Octave users ?
> 
> What about installed packages, when a user upgrades from 4.0.2 to 4.2.0 ?

In the context of packages, they have always had to be reinstalled when
moving to a new major version. The mex and oct files in a package are
always installed to a directory name that includes the "api_version"
tag. In Octave 4.0 this was "api-v50+". In Octave 4.2 this is "api-v51".

If you install a package in Octave 4.0, and attempt to "pkg load" it in
Octave 4.2, it will simply not add the directory containing mex or oct
files to the load path. This has always been the case. Because of this
version tag that is embedded in the directory name, Octave avoids
loading files that were compiled for an incompatible version of Octave.

> (perhaps should we move this discussion to the maintainers list now ?)

Sure, done.

There is certainly room for discussion and improvement, I think we've
touched on quite a few interrelated issues.

-- 
mike