Issues with genpath reproducibility

[Sorina Camarasu Pop]

Dear all,

I have recently stumbled on a strange issue when executing an octave 
application inside a Docker container: everything run smoothly on a 
CentOS6 host, while it failed on a CentOS7 host. After a few hours of 
debug, I realized the difference came from the order in which folders 
were added to the path when executing the following command: 
"addpath(genpath('octave_packages'))". The Octave version used is 3.8.2

Here is an excerpt of the octave path in the two situations (printed 
with "path()" ) :

Octave's search path contains the following directories:

1. on the CentOS6 host :
octave_packages
octave_packages/tsa-4.2.4
octave_packages/tsa-4.2.4/packinfo
octave_packages/strings-1.1.0
octave_packages/strings-1.1.0/packinfo
octave_packages/java-1.2.8
octave_packages/java-1.2.8/packinfo
octave_packages/statistics-1.1.3
octave_packages/statistics-1.1.3/packinfo
octave_packages/gsl-1.0.8
octave_packages/gsl-1.0.8/packinfo

[...]


2. on the CentOS7 host :
octave_packages/fixed-0.7.10
octave_packages/fixed-0.7.10/packinfo
octave_packages/sockets-1.0.8
octave_packages/sockets-1.0.8/packinfo
octave_packages/general-1.3.1
octave_packages/general-1.3.1/packinfo
octave_packages/financial-0.4.0
octave_packages/financial-0.4.0/packinfo
octave_packages/vrml-1.0.13
octave_packages/vrml-1.0.13/packinfo
octave_packages/audio-1.1.4
octave_packages/audio-1.1.4/packinfo
octave_packages/communications-1.1.1
octave_packages/communications-1.1.1/packinfo
octave_packages/nurbs-1.3.6
octave_packages/nurbs-1.3.6/packinfo
octave_packages/dataframe-0.9.1
octave_packages/dataframe-0.9.1/packinfo
[...]


The order is clearly not the same.

Is this a bug ?... Are there any options that can be given in order to 
ensure the exact same order of the folders listed ?

Thank you for your help,

Sorina

--
Sorina Pop, PhD
CNRS Research Engineer
CREATIS
Tel : +33 (0)4 72 44 62 87