~/.octaverc

[John Eaton]

address@hidden <address@hidden> wrote:

: I am using octave v1.1.1 on a pentium with linux 1.2.8.  What I would 
: like octave to be able to do is to search for the user's local "m" file 
: path.  For instance, a user with all his octave "m" files in his local 
: "m" file dictories, ie: $HOME/octave/misc, $HOME/octave/utils, can be 
: called by octave.  This should be accomplished by .octaverc.  But, what 
: should I put in the .octaverc.

Either

  LOADPATH = ":~/octave/misc:~/octave/utils"

or

  LOADPATH = "~/octave/misc:~/octave/utils:"

depending on whether you want Octave to search your directories before
or after the standard path.  Here is some more info from the Octave
manual:

`LOADPATH'
     A colon separated list of directories in which to search for
     function files.  *Note Functions and Scripts::.  The value of
     `LOADPATH' overrides the environment variable `OCTAVE_PATH'.
     *Note Installation::.

     `LOADPATH' is now handled in the same way as TeX handles
     `TEXINPUTS'.  If the path starts with `:', the standard path is
     prepended to the value of `LOADPATH'.  If it ends with `:' the
     standard path is appended to the value of `LOADPATH'.

     In addition, if any path element ends in `//', that directory and
     all subdirectories it contains are searched recursively for
     function files.  This can result in a slight delay as Octave
     caches the lists of files found in the `LOADPATH' the first time
     Octave searches for a function.  After that, searching is usually
     much faster because Octave normally only needs to search its
     internal cache for files.

     To improve performance of recursive directory searching, it is
     best for each directory that is to be searched recursively to
     contain *either* additional subdirectories *or* function files, but
     not a mixture of both.

(I suppose the manual should also mention that tilde-expansion is
performed on LOADPATH...)

: It would be nice to have a global .octaverc for all users.

There is.  Here is the description of it from the Octave manual:

`OCTAVE_HOME/lib/octave/VERSION/startup/octaverc'
     Where `OCTAVE_HOME' is the directory in which all of Octave is
     installed (the default is `/usr/local'), and `VERSION' is the
     version number of Octave.  This file is provided so that changes
     to the default Octave environment can be made globally for all
     users.  Some care should be taken when making changes to this
     file, since all users of Octave at your site will be affected.


jwe