Re: Octave with Mac OS X and Fink seems slow

[Alexander Hansen]

On Nov 8, 2014, at 9:06 AM, mpender <address@hidden> wrote:

> I installed Octave 3.8.2 on Mac OS X 10.9.4 using Fink on a machine with very
> similar specifications (processor, memory, bus architecture, etc.) to a
> similar machine I built running Ubuntu Linux 12.04, and the Fink
> installation seems about 30-50% slower.   If anything, I would have expected
> the Mac OS X machine to have a speed advantage.
> 
> I'm wondering if the difference stems from the use of the clang compiler
> instead of gcc and either MPI instructions or the use of a lower level of
> optimization when building the packages for Mac OS X.  Is there a way to
> change the compiler options (e.g. -march=native) and rebuild Octave on Mac
> OS X to improve the speed?
> 
> Thanks, Mike
> 
> 
> 

There are a couple of  options under Fink:

1)  You can try adding tweaking compiler options by editing the package 
description file (/sw/fink/dists/stable/main/finkinfo/sci/octave-3.8.2.info for 
a default installation)  — though we generally recommend that people work with 
a copy in a local tree — most of the build process for Octave is contained in a 
sh script, so most of the optimization settings and the like are visible in 
that.

2)  Fink uses compiler wrapper scripts which allow you to append flags directly 
to the compiler invocation. 

Since this isn’t really specific to Octave, but rather to Fink, how about we 
move this discussion over to one of the Fink mailing lists?  The Fink Developer 
List at address@hidden is probably the best, since you’re talking about 
tweaking builds and packaging.  

-- 
Alexander Hansen, Ph.D.
Fink User Liaison