path: octave 3.0.0 can't find itself

[Ben Abbott]

On Dec 28, 2007, at 1:00 AM, John W. Eaton wrote:

> On 27-Dec-2007, Ben Abbott wrote:
>
> |
> | On Dec 27, 2007, at 11:40 AM, Dushan Mitrovich wrote:
> |
> | > Ben Abbott <bpabbott at mac.com> wrote:
> | >>
> | >> On Dec 26, 2007, at 3:26 PM, Dushan Mitrovich wrote:
> | >>> I've been using Octave 2.9.15 on a Mac (Intel) under X.4.11.   
> When
> | >>> Octave 3.0.0 became available a few days ago I decided to  
> update my
> | >>> installation to it.
> | >>>
> | >>> Not wanting to dump the older app, residing in /Applications,
> | >>> until I had
> | >>> a chance to test the new one, I renamed the old one
> | >>> Octave-2.9.15.app,
> | >>> then dragged the new Octave.app from the .dmg file to the /
> | >>> Applications
> | >>> folder.  I expected to have to tell the new one the path to  
> search
> | >>> for my
> | >>> personal script files and functions.
> | >>>
> | >>> Instead, when I open the new Octave.app it announces
> | >>>
> | >>> warning: addpath: /Applications/Octave.app/Contents/Resources/
> | >>> share/...
> | >>>                    octave/2.9.15/m/<filename>
> | >>>
> | >>> where as in Octave '...' denotes continuation, and '<filename>'
> | >>> refers
> | >>> to different files.  To the command 'path' the respond is
> | >>>
> | >>> /Users/dushanm/Octave
> | >>> /Applications/Octave.app/Contents/Resources/share/octave/site/m/
> | >>> /Applications/Octave.app/Contents/Resources/share/octave/site/m/
> | >>> startup
> | >>>
> | >>> So from somewhere it got correct information about the path to  
> my
> | >>> personal files (the first reference), but wrong information  
> about
> | >>> other
> | >>> paths.
> | >>>
> | >>> I looked everywhere on my system for some file that refers to
> | >>> '2.9.15'
> | >>> and found exactly 5 files, 4 of them in ~/Trash, with that
> | >>> reference.
> | >>> In each case it was in a comment line.  Where in the world is  
> Octave
> | >>> getting all this information, much of it wrong?  First I'd  
> like to
> | >>> understand this, and second I want to correct it.
> | >>
> | >> Do you see the file ".octaverc" in your home folder when you type
> | >> "ls -
> | >> ah" in a terminal window?
> | >
> | > BINGO!  Thanks, Ben, that was it.  Spotlight had screwed me up  
> again
> | > by
> | > not showing what it considered hidden files.
> | >
> | >> If so, that is likely where the problem lies.  You can verify by
> | >> "cat .octaverc" to see the contents of the path defined in that  
> file.
> | >
> | > Once I found the file, I edited it (even tho it said 'do not  
> edit') by
> | > changing '2.9.15' to '3.0.0' and then Octave came up without
> | > complaint.
> | >
> | >> I've not tried to set up different versions of Octave on my  
> Mac, so
> | >> I'm not much help there.
> | >
> | > As soon as I'm comfortable with 3.0.0 I'll get rid of the older
> | > version.
> |
> | I've had the same problem when upgrading to a newer version ...
> | meaning that you would have encountered the same error even if you  
> had
> | removed the 2.9.15 installation before installing 3.0.0.
> |
> | The solution that worked for me was to delete the .octaverc file
> | altogether. I doubt this is a desirable solution for all cases,  
> but if
> | you don't have any information that is local to your setup, I'd
> | recommend deleting the .octaverc file.
>
> Why is there any version-specific path info in your ~/.octaverc file?
> Did you add it by hand?  If so, why?

I don't know if it is a feature of Octave on OSX in general (I doubt  
it), or a feature of how Fink installs Octave (most likely). In any  
event, my Fink installation adds the version number to the path for  
the m-files.

For example, a "savepath" produces the result I've attached. This  
creates a situation where users often edit this file during each  
update ... some may add some additional path information manually.  
Hence my qualified comment.

Ben

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