Octave on Compaq Alpha

[A. Scottedward Hodel]

About 2 months ago our compaq alpha received an operating system
upgrade that should have been "transparent."  Unfortunately, we've
run into a few difficulties, compiling a stable version of Octave
(2.0.x or 2.1.x doesn't matter).  I've been working with someone
from systems support here for about a week, and he's been able to
duplicate my confusion.

here's the symptoms:
Octave compiles fine.  Executable and m-files get installed.
However, with all configure options I've tried thus far,
I get this behavior:

octave:1> svd(rand(3))
error: floating point exception -- trying to return to prompt
octave:1>

I initially assumed that this error was due to uninitialized data
(alpha's are picky about that); however, when I modified the
c++ SVD routine in liboctave to initialize and print all data,
no change in error occured.  With the aid of a debugger, the error
was identified as being in dger.f in the libcruft blas directory.

The system support guy modified dger.f to print an "enter dger"
message.  This string shows up in dger.o, and libcruft.a, but 
*not* in the recompiled octave executive.  We also forced FFLAGS=-g
and rebuilt libcruft.a; we are still unable to get at the fortran
source and variables in the debugger.  It doesn't seem
to matter what we do in the fortran routines, we aren't
getting the modifications loaded into the recompiled octave.

I realize that this is an imprecise problem statement, but we
would much appreciate ANYONE's experience dealing with this
sort of problem.

For more detail, here's the information that would appear in an
octave-bug message (but I don't think this is an octave problem):
Configuration (please do not edit this section):
-----------------------------------------------

uname output:     OSF1 edalf1 V4.0 1091 alpha
configure opts:   --prefix=/S4/hodel/threeday/tmp/gnu --with-f77
Fortran compiler: f77
FFLAGS:           -fpe1 -O
F2C:
F2CFLAGS:
FLIBS:            -lUfor -lfor -lFutil -lm -lots -lm
CPPFLAGS:
INCFLAGS:         -I/S4/hodel/threeday/tmp/gnu/include/octave-2.1.14/octave 
-I/S4/hodel/threeday/tmp/g
nu/include
C compiler:       gcc, version 2.8.1
CFLAGS:           -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -mieee-with-inexact -g -O2 -Wall
CPICFLAG:
C++ compiler:     c++, version 2.8.1
CXXFLAGS:         -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -mieee-with-inexact -fno-rtti -fno-exceptions 
-fno-implicit-template
s -g -O2 -Wall
CXXPICFLAG:
LDFLAGS:          -g
LIBFLAGS:         -L/S4/hodel/threeday/tmp/gnu/lib/octave-2.1.14
RLD_FLAG:         -Xlinker -rpath -Xlinker 
/S4/hodel/threeday/tmp/gnu/lib/octave-2.1.14
TERMLIBS:         -lcurses
LIBS:
LEXLIB:
LIBPLPLOT:
LIBDLFCN:
LIBGLOB:          ./glob/libglob.a
DEFS:

  -DOCTAVE_SOURCE=1 -DSEPCHAR=':' -DSEPCHAR_STR=":" -DUSE_READLINE=1
  -D__NO_MATH_INLINES=1 -DCXX_NEW_FRIEND_TEMPLATE_DECL=1 -DHAVE_LIBM=1
  -DF77_APPEND_UNDERSCORE=1 -DSIZEOF_SHORT=2 -DSIZEOF_INT=4
  -DSIZEOF_LONG=8 -DHAVE_ALLOCA_H=1 -DHAVE_ALLOCA=1 -DNPOS=string::npos
  -DSTDC_HEADERS=1 -DHAVE_DIRENT_H=1 -DTIME_WITH_SYS_TIME=1
  -DHAVE_SYS_WAIT_H=1 -DHAVE_ASSERT_H=1 -DHAVE_CURSES_H=1
  -DHAVE_DLFCN_H=1 -DHAVE_FCNTL_H=1 -DHAVE_FLOAT_H=1 -DHAVE_FNMATCH_H=1
  -DHAVE_GLOB_H=1 -DHAVE_GRP_H=1 -DHAVE_LIMITS_H=1 -DHAVE_MEMORY_H=1
  -DHAVE_NAN_H=1 -DHAVE_PWD_H=1 -DHAVE_SGTTY_H=1 -DHAVE_STDLIB_H=1
  -DHAVE_STRING_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_PARAM_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_RESOURCE_H=1
  -DHAVE_SYS_SELECT_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_STAT_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_TIME_H=1
  -DHAVE_SYS_TIMES_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_TYPES_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_UTSNAME_H=1
  -DHAVE_TERMIO_H=1 -DHAVE_TERMIOS_H=1 -DHAVE_UNISTD_H=1
  -DHAVE_VARARGS_H=1 -DHAVE_ATEXIT=1 -DHAVE_BCOPY=1 -DHAVE_BZERO=1
  -DHAVE_DUP2=1 -DHAVE_ENDGRENT=1 -DHAVE_ENDPWENT=1 -DHAVE_EXECVP=1
  -DHAVE_FCNTL=1 -DHAVE_FORK=1 -DHAVE_GETCWD=1 -DHAVE_GETEGID=1
  -DHAVE_GETEUID=1 -DHAVE_GETGID=1 -DHAVE_GETGRENT=1 -DHAVE_GETGRGID=1
  -DHAVE_GETGRNAM=1 -DHAVE_GETHOSTNAME=1 -DHAVE_GETPGRP=1 -DHAVE_GETPID=1
  -DHAVE_GETPPID=1 -DHAVE_GETPWENT=1 -DHAVE_GETPWNAM=1 -DHAVE_GETPWUID=1
  -DHAVE_GETTIMEOFDAY=1 -DHAVE_GETUID=1 -DHAVE_GETWD=1 -DHAVE_LSTAT=1
  -DHAVE_MEMMOVE=1 -DHAVE_MKDIR=1 -DHAVE_MKFIFO=1 -DHAVE_PIPE=1
  -DHAVE_PUTENV=1 -DHAVE_RENAME=1 -DHAVE_RINDEX=1 -DHAVE_RMDIR=1
  -DHAVE_SETGRENT=1 -DHAVE_SETPWENT=1 -DHAVE_SETVBUF=1 -DHAVE_SIGACTION=1
  -DHAVE_SIGPENDING=1 -DHAVE_SIGPROCMASK=1 -DHAVE_SIGSUSPEND=1
  -DHAVE_STAT=1 -DHAVE_STRCASECMP=1 -DHAVE_STRDUP=1 -DHAVE_STRERROR=1
  -DHAVE_STRFTIME=1 -DHAVE_STRNCASECMP=1 -DHAVE_TEMPNAM=1 -DHAVE_UMASK=1
  -DHAVE_UNLINK=1 -DHAVE_USLEEP=1 -DHAVE_VFPRINTF=1 -DHAVE_VSPRINTF=1
  -DHAVE_WAITPID=1 -DHAVE_DLOPEN=1 -DHAVE_DLSYM=1 -DHAVE_DLERROR=1
  -DHAVE_DLCLOSE=1 -DWITH_DL=1 -DWITH_DYNAMIC_LINKING=1 -DHAVE_TIMEVAL=1
  -DHAVE_FINITE=1 -DHAVE_ISNAN=1 -DHAVE_ACOSH=1 -DHAVE_ASINH=1
  -DHAVE_ATANH=1 -DHAVE_ERF=1 -DHAVE_ERFC=1 -DHAVE_ST_BLKSIZE=1
  -DHAVE_ST_BLOCKS=1 -DHAVE_ST_RDEV=1 -DHAVE_TM_ZONE=1 -DHAVE_GR_PASSWD=1
  -DEXCEPTION_IN_MATH=1 -DRETSIGTYPE=void -DHAVE_SYS_SIGLIST=1
  -DHAVE_POSIX_SIGNALS=1 -DHAVE_GETRUSAGE=1 -DHAVE_TIMES=1
  -DGNUPLOT_HAS_MULTIPLOT=1 -DGNUPLOT_HAS_FRAMES=1   

A S Hodel Assoc. Prof. Dept Elect Eng, Auburn Univ,AL  36849-5201
On leave at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (256) 544-1426
Address until 15 Mar 2000:Mail Code ED-13, MSFC, Alabama, 35812
http://www.eng.auburn.edu/~scotte