Re: Change default package directory from octave to .octave, or ask before first package installation

[Tasos Papastylianou]

Hi Mike!

Yes, that sounds much more reasonable!

An info note at or before the very first install might also still be desirable, for people who aren't particularly familiar with the pkg prefix command or how packages work in general, e.g. something like

"You are installing your first octave package. The default installation directory is blah blah blah.

If you'd like to use something else, use the 'pkg prefix' command before installing, to specify a different directory. See 'help pkg' for details."

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Tasos

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From: Help-octave <help-octave-bounces+address@hidden> on behalf of Mike Miller <address@hidden>
Sent: 27 August 2018 11:03
To: address@hidden
Subject: Re: Change default package directory from octave to .octave, or ask before first package installation

 

On Mon, Aug 27, 2018 at 16:27:11 +0000, Tasos Papastylianou wrote:
> The current choice of default installation directory for octave
> packages feels very intrusive.

Agree.

> I'm hoping for some discussion on whether others feel this is a
> significant enough annoyance or not. I note that on Windows the
> default folder is much more reasonable (but I understand why the same
> folder wouldn't work in the Linux hierarchy).
>
> Acceptable solutions in my mind would be a more reasonable (w.r.t.
> unix filesystem philosophy) default prefix directory, e.g. ".octave" /
> ".octave/lib" etc, or a directory confirmation / warning before
> installation of the *first* package (i.e., similar to how Julia does
> it ).

I personally use the following configuration:

  ~/.local/lib/octave/${ver}/packages/
  ~/.local/share/octave/${ver}/packages/
  ~/.local/share/octave/${ver}/octave_packages  (cache file)

IMHO this is the most consistent with other programs and filesystem
conventions, as well as conveniently allowing different sets and builds
of packages for each Octave release (as a developer, I switch between
multiple Octave releases regularly).

BTW, the ${ver} variable in the names above is only "4.2" or "4.4",
since compiled oct functions are *usually* compatible with subsequent
bug fix releases.

Do you think Octave should change to use a default like this?

--
mike