Re: Creating RPM for octave

[Quentin Spencer]

Hall, Benjamin wrote:

> I'd like an RPM for octave-2.9.3 that I could distribute to some machines
> running various (new) versions of SuSE.  It doesn't appear that any
> currently exist (if I'm wrong, I'd be happy), so it looks like I'll have to
> generate one (for each version I presume).
>
> I've technically created an RPM package using checkinstall, but I was unable
> to use rpm to uninstall it, so it looks like I may have to try to do it the
> right way.  Can anyone offer some suggestions?  
>
> It looks like the "spec" file is the key?  Would it be possible (and useful)
> to use a spec file for a different distribution with potentially a few
> tweaks?  Or should I really start from scratch?  
>
> If anyone who has been through this process have some suggestions or hints
> I'd appreciate it!
>  

There is an RPM for 2.9.3 in the development branch of Fedora Extras. I 
would suggest getting the SRPM at 
http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/extras/development/SRPMS/octave-2.9.3-6.fc5.src.rpm.
The first thing you could try is just rebuilding it for SuSE using 
rpmbuild --rebuild and see what happens. However, I suspect it will fail 
because of missing dependencies. You'll need glpk and ufsparse to begin 
with. SRPMS for those can be found in the same directory of the Fedora 
Extras mirrors. If you don't need those features and don't want to worry 
about the extra dependencies, you could edit the spec file file 
appropriately to remove the dependencies. Otherwise, I suspect that 
building with that spec file should work with maybe minor modifications. 
Go ahead and try it and report any errors you can't get around.

Does SuSE have anything equivalent to Fedora Extras or Mandrake Cooker? 
SuSE now seems to be the one major distribution that is really lacking 
in support for octave. Having a good source for octave RPMS for SuSE 
would be helpful to others I'm sure.

-Quentin



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