Re: Octave 4.2 binary + all packages in Linux ?

[Tatsuro MATSUOKA]

----- Original Message -----

> From: roland65 
> To: help-octave
> Cc: 
> Date: 2017/4/15, Sat 16:53
> Subject: Re: Octave 4.2 binary + all packages in Linux ?
> 
> John W. Eaton wrote
>>   Or maybe we could work more 
>>  toward a "universal binary" that would work on any system.  
> Contact me 
>>  privately and we can discuss it further.
> 
> Thanks for you detailed and argumented answer. I understand the technical
> limitations and respect your position, of course.
> 
> I'm not much aware of the various ways to distribute system independent
> binaries (I only know the static binaries way). So what is the purpose of
> mxe-octave?
> 
> And do you think that snap or flatpack packages could be a solution?
> 
> Thanks!



> So what is the purpose of mxe-octave?



I am not a mxe-octave maintainer but a user.

http://wiki.octave.org/MXE


According to the above wiki, 

The purpose is

Based on the MXE project there is an MXE-Octave fork available to allow 
cross compiling Octave to various target systems.

For linux, not cross build but native build.

************************

For linux, almost dependencies are build from source.

Therefore build binaries almost not depends not libraries from distribution.

I used mxe-octave for linux for two purpose.

1. Build octave on rather old version distribution (e.g. ubuntu 14.04)
Some dependency libraries on old version distribution is too old to build 
the current octave.
In the case, MXE octave is useful.

I have not tested but destination directory can be copied to other PC on the 
same version and same distro. 

2. Build octave with large arrays.
octave with large arrays requires fortran dependencies with 64bit index.
(The current dev branch source seems to allow to use 32 bit libraries.)

In that case, MXE octave is useful.


***************************

For cross-build for windows, MXE-octave can made an installer and zip archives 
with octave-forge packages.
But for linux, as far as I know, such feature does not exist.
But I feel that it can be extended for linux.


Regards

Tatsuro