GNU Octave: Installation

GNU Octave uses the same binding as MATLAB: the same ctoon_mex.c gateway and the same +ctoon wrappers, compiled with mkoctfile instead of MATLAB's mex. This page only covers how to install it. Everything else (usage, type mapping, file I/O, the API reference) is identical and lives in the MATLAB documentation:

Requirements

GNU Octave 8.1 or newer.
Octave's development files, which provide mkoctfile (Debian/Ubuntu: apt install octave octave-dev; Homebrew: brew install octave).
A C compiler.

There is no prebuilt Octave binary: you build the binding once, from source. Only that build needs mkoctfile and a compiler. Using the result needs nothing but Octave.

Install with `ctoon.manager`

If you have the Python package, no checkout is needed:

bash

python -m ctoon.manager octave detect    # Octave version, mkoctfile, compiler
python -m ctoon.manager octave install   # download, build, self-check

install downloads the MATLAB source distribution of the release (ctoon-matlab-<version>-src.zip), builds it with mkoctfile and prints the addpath(...) line to use. Options:

Option	Meaning
`--prefix DIR`	Where to install (default: `<python prefix>/share/ctoon/octave`).
`--tag TAG`	Install a specific release, e.g. `v0.8.3`.
`--beta`	Use the `__beta__` development pre-release (unstable).
`--zip FILE`	Build from a local `ctoon-matlab-*-src.zip` instead of downloading.

Build from a checkout

matlab

cd src/bindings/matlab
ctoon_build('/path/to/ctoon-octave')   % compiles with mkoctfile
addpath('/path/to/ctoon-octave')       % that one folder is all Octave needs

The build directory holds ctoon_mex.mex next to the +ctoon package. (Octave does not look inside a private/ folder of a +package, which is where the MATLAB build puts the gateway.)

Make it permanent

Put the addpath(...) line in ~/.octaverc.

ctoon_install also works under Octave, but Octave's savepath stores your whole current path in ~/.octaverc, not just CToon's, so the one-line addpath is tidier.

Verify

matlab

ctoon.encode(struct('hello', 'world'))

Build and test with CMake

bash

cmake -B build -DCTOON_BUILD_OCTAVE=ON
cmake --build build
ctest --test-dir build -R octave --output-on-failure

The tests use MOxUnit, which CMake fetches for you. They load the already-built binding and compile nothing.

Usage and the full API are the MATLAB ones: see the MATLAB documentation.