Re: build_packages.m script, visibility?

[John Donoghue]

On 12/27/2015 05:55 AM, Oliver Heimlich wrote:
> On 27.12.2015 01:04, John W. Eaton wrote:
> > On 12/26/2015 08:09 AM, John Donoghue wrote:
> > > On 12/25/2015 06:18 PM, Oliver Heimlich wrote:
> > > > On 26.12.2015 00:11, Nicholas Jankowski wrote:
> > > > > I always install via the zip file version and don't run into any admin
> > > > > issues with packages. Can anyone comment if this is always the case, or
> > > > > only for certain packages? Same problem with the pkg install or pkg
> > > > > update commands?
> > > > This is because you installed Octave in C:\Octave\… and I did install it
> > > > (with higher privileges) in %ProgramFiles%.  Later, when running it
> > > > again, I do not have permission to unzip / install packages in
> > > > %ProgramFiles%
> > > >
> > > > > Having it install the default when the program is installed would
> > > > > (should) be easier as it should occur with the same access level
> > > > > used to
> > > > > run the Octave installer.
> > > > Yes, this would eliminate a lot of pitfalls.
> > > >
> > > > > Would this happen by opening an instance of Octave set to run the build
> > > > > packages script and exit? Can they be "built" before building the
> > > > > installer so they're already installed?
> > > > As far as I understand, the packages are cross-compiled, but
> > > > build_packages.m does not consider this possibility and does a “classic”
> > > > installation. It would suffice to extract the tarballs, put the files
> > > > into the right directories and update the global package database. This
> > > > should be possible to do with the installer and not run an Octave script
> > > > during installation.
> > > build_packages.m does do the classic install command, however should not
> > > be recompiling the packages if they were built already compiled.
> > > In fact the makefile etc in the source directory is removed as part of
> > > the mxe-octave cross build of the packages.
> True, I have looked more into details. All packages but ltfat use
> precompiled oct-files. Installation takes approximately 300 seconds for
> ltfat and between 1 and 25 seconds for other packages. ltfat does not
> contain precompiled oct-files, that's why this package takes so much
> time and why I have originally thought, that there was no cross-compiled
> package. However, it is only ltfat that does not use cross-compiled
> oct-files and goes through a full recompilation during build_packages.m.
From memory, at the time I gave up trying to get ltfat to cross compile :)

I will check in script today and post what parts are still in need of work