This section describes known problems that affect users of Octave. Most of these are not Octave bugs per se--if they were, we would fix them. But the result for a user may be like the result of a bug.
Some of these problems are due to bugs in other software, some are missing features that are too much work to add, and some are places where people's opinions differ as to what is best.
fflush (stdout)Another possible workaround is to use the command
page_screen_output = "false"to turn the pager off.
Input line too longwhen trying to plot many lines on one graph, you have probably generated a plot command that is too larger for
gnuplot
's fixed-length
buffer for commands. Splitting up the plot command doesn't help because
replot is implemented in gnuplot by simply appending the new plotting
commands to the old command line and then evaluating it again.
You can demonstrate this `feature' by running gnuplot and doing
something like
plot sin (x), sin (x), sin (x), ... lots more ..., sin (x)and then
replot sin (x), sin (x), sin (x), ... lots more ..., sin (x)after repeating the replot command a few times, gnuplot will give you an error. Also, it doesn't help to use backslashes to enter a plot command over several lines, because the limit is on the overall command line length, once the backslashed lines are all pasted together. Because of this, Octave tries to use as little of the command-line length as possible by using the shortest possible abbreviations for all the plot commands and options. Unfortunately, the length of the temporary file names is probably what is taking up the most space on the command line. You can buy a little bit of command line space by setting the environment variable
TMPDIR
to be "." before starting Octave, or
you can increase the maximum command line length in gnuplot by changing
the following limits in the file plot.h in the gnuplot distribution and
recompiling gnuplot.
#define MAX_LINE_LEN 32768 /* originally 1024 */ #define MAX_TOKENS 8192 /* originally 400 */Of course, this doesn't really fix the problem, but it does make it much less likely that you will run into trouble unless you are putting a very large number of lines on a given plot.
A list of ideas for future enhancements is distributed with Octave. See the file `PROJECTS' in the top level directory in the source distribution.
Your bug reports play an essential role in making Octave reliable.
When you encounter a problem, the first thing to do is to see if it is already known. See section Known Causes of Trouble. If it isn't known, then you should report the problem.
Reporting a bug may help you by bringing a solution to your problem, or it may not. In any case, the principal function of a bug report is to help the entire community by making the next version of Octave work better. Bug reports are your contribution to the maintenance of Octave.
In order for a bug report to serve its purpose, you must include the information that makes it possible to fix the bug.
If you have Octave working at all, the easiest way to prepare a complete
bug report is to use the Octave function bug_report
. When you
execute this function, Octave will prompt you for a subject and then
invoke the editor on a file that already contains all the configuration
information. When you exit the editor, Octave will mail the bug report
for you.
If you are not sure whether you have found a bug, here are some guidelines:
If you have Octave working at all, the easiest way to prepare a complete
bug report is to use the Octave function bug_report
. When you
execute this function, Octave will prompt you for a subject and then
invoke the editor on a file that already contains all the configuration
information. When you exit the editor, Octave will mail the bug report
for you.
If for some reason you cannot use Octave's bug_report
function,
send bug reports for Octave to @email{bug-octave@bevo.che.wisc.edu}.
Do not send bug reports to `help-octave'. Most users of Octave do not want to receive bug reports. Those that do have asked to be on the mailing list.
As a last resort, send bug reports on paper to:
Octave Bugs c/o John W. Eaton University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Chemical Engineering 1415 Engineering Drive Madison, Wisconsin 53706 USA
Send bug reports for Octave to one of the addresses listed in section Where to Report Bugs.
The fundamental principle of reporting bugs usefully is this: report all the facts. If you are not sure whether to state a fact or leave it out, state it!
Often people omit facts because they think they know what causes the problem and they conclude that some details don't matter. Thus, you might assume that the name of the variable you use in an example does not matter. Well, probably it doesn't, but one cannot be sure. Perhaps the bug is a stray memory reference which happens to fetch from the location where that name is stored in memory; perhaps, if the name were different, the contents of that location would fool the interpreter into doing the right thing despite the bug. Play it safe and give a specific, complete example.
Keep in mind that the purpose of a bug report is to enable someone to fix the bug if it is not known. Always write your bug reports on the assumption that the bug is not known.
Sometimes people give a few sketchy facts and ask, "Does this ring a bell?" This cannot help us fix a bug. It is better to send a complete bug report to begin with.
Try to make your bug report self-contained. If we have to ask you for more information, it is best if you include all the previous information in your response, as well as the information that was missing.
To enable someone to investigate the bug, you should include all these things:
configure
command when
you installed the interpreter.
Here are some things that are not necessary:
If you would like to write bug fixes or improvements for Octave, that is very helpful. When you send your changes, please follow these guidelines to avoid causing extra work for us in studying the patches.
If you don't follow these guidelines, your information might still be useful, but using it will take extra work. Maintaining Octave is a lot of work in the best of circumstances, and we can't keep up unless you do your best to help.
The mailing list @email{help-octave@bevo.che.wisc.edu} exists for the discussion of matters related to using and installing Octave. If would like to join the discussion, please send a short note to @email{help-octave-request@bevo.che.wisc.edu}.
Please do not send requests to be added or removed from the mailing list, or other administrative trivia to the list itself.
If you think you have found a bug in the installation procedure, however, you should send a complete bug report for the problem to @email{bug-octave@bevo.che.wisc.edu}. See section How to Report Bugs for information that will help you to submit a useful report.
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