Markus,

Indeed the mxe-octave patch helps!

Now, I'm seeing the same feval issue that Dimitri mentioned.

However, I already had a patch for that.So all IO had to do is enable it.  Not particularly elegant, but it does fix the build.

https://github.com/macports/macports-ports/blob/master/octave/octave-gsl/files/patch-src-gsl_sf.cc.diff

There is the following patch in MXE Octave that also changes the configure tests that are failing for you:
https://hg.octave.org/mxe-octave/file/tip/src/of-gsl-1-cross-fixes.patch

Maybe, applying it also helps in your case?

comment #17:

> So, `$octave_include_dir` was empty before and after you ran the command?

Yes

So, `$octave_include_dir` was empty before and after you ran the command?

Could it be that user shell and /bin/sh are different?

Dmitri.
--

Both give /opt/local/include/octave-8.4.0/octave

comment #12:

> If I understand the configure script correctly, it tries to execute that command and catch its output in a shell variable.
> But, looking at your config.log, that shell variable seems to be empty.
> Does the following work in a shell?

> octave_include_dir=`/usr/bin/arch -arch arm64 /opt/local/bin/octave-8.4.0 -qf --eval "disp(__octave_config_info__('octincludedir'))"`
> echo $octave_include_dir

>
> That is a stripped down version of the actual command that the configure script runs. The actual command is closer to this:

> octave_include_dir=`/usr/bin/arch -arch arm64 /opt/local/bin/octave-8.4.0 -qf --eval "if exist ('__octave_config_info__') disp  (__octave_config_info__ ('octincludedir')) else disp  (octave_config_info ('octincludedir')) end"`
> echo $octave_include_dir

>
> Does that also work?
>

I also see warnings about main w/o return type, but those do not look detrimental:

...
conftest.cpp:21:1: warning: ISO C++ forbids declaration of 'main' with no type [-Wreturn-type]
   21 | main()
      | ^~~~
configure:3166: $? = 0
configure:3189: g++ -c -g -O2 -I/usr/local/include/octave-9.0.1/octave  conftest.cpp >&5
conftest.cpp:24:1: warning: ISO C++ forbids declaration of 'main' with no type [-Wreturn-type]
   24 | main()
      | ^~~~
configure:3189: $? = 0
configure:3209: checking for cos in -lm
configure:3234: g++ -o conftest -g -O2   conftest.cpp -lm   >&5
conftest.cpp:28:6: warning: declaration of 'char cos()' conflicts with built-in declaration 'double cos(double)' [-Wbuiltin-declaration-mismatch]
   28 | char cos ();
      |      ^~~
configure:3234: $? = 0
configure:3243: result: yes
...

Dmitri
--

Not sure if this is a different problem or related. I tried to
compile with clang (against octave compiled with clang) and I see:

...
checking for gsl_sf_hzeta_e... yes
checking for gsl_sf_hzeta_e... (cached) yes
GSL special functions: all available
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating Makefile
config.status: creating config.h
make[1]: Entering directory '/tmp/oct-E7hFoN/gsl-2.1.1/src'
/usr/local/bin/mkoctfile-9.0.1 --verbose  gsl_sf.cc -lgsl
clang++ -std=gnu++17 -c  -fPIC -I/usr/local/include/octave-9.0.1/octave/.. -I/usr/local/include/octave-9.0.1/octave -I/usr/local/include  -pthread -fopenmp -ggdb3 -O2 -march=native -mtune=native -mavx -mavx2 -flto=thin    gsl_sf.cc -o /tmp/oct-T2n2tD.o
gsl_sf.cc:53:3: error: use of undeclared identifier 'feval'; did you mean 'octave::feval'?
  feval ("help", octave_value ("gsl_sf"));
  ^~~~~
  octave::feval
/usr/local/include/octave-9.0.1/octave/../octave/parse.h:915:1: note: 'octave::feval' declared here
feval (const char *name,
^
gsl_sf.cc:124:11: error: no member named 'is_real_type' in 'octave_value'
    if (! ISREAL(args(i)))
          ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
gsl_sf.cc:32:24: note: expanded from macro 'ISREAL'
#define ISREAL(x) ((x).is_real_type ())
                   ~~~ ^
gsl_sf.cc:222:11: error: no member named 'is_real_type' in 'octave_value'
    if (! ISREAL(args(i)))
...

Dmitri.
--

comment #5:

> configure: error: gslcblas library not found

This library is present in the default MacPorts lib path:

% locate libgslcblas
/opt/local/lib/libgslcblas.0.dylib
/opt/local/lib/libgslcblas.a
/opt/local/lib/libgslcblas.dylib

This is a different error that I see when building using MacPorts:

GNU Octave, version 8.4.0
Copyright (C) 1993-2023 The Octave Project Developers.
This is free software; see the source code for copying conditions.
There is ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  For details, type 'warranty'.

Octave was configured for "aarch64-apple-darwin22.6.0".

Additional information about Octave is available at https://www.octave.org.

Please contribute if you find this software useful.
For more information, visit https://www.octave.org/get-involved.html

Read https://www.octave.org/bugs.html to learn how to submit bug reports.
For information about changes from previous versions, type 'news'.

>> pkg install -forge -verbose gsl

downloading tarball(s) from:
- https://packages.octave.org/download/gsl-2.1.1.tar.gz
mkdir (/var/folders/wp/pwsddx5n5p513r6z73qfsf440000gn/T/oct-JWQt61)
untar (/var/folders/wp/pwsddx5n5p513r6z73qfsf440000gn/T/gsl-2.1.1-xTsCIn.tar.gz, /var/folders/wp/pwsddx5n5p513r6z73qfsf440000gn/T/oct-JWQt61)
checking for mkoctfile... /opt/local/bin/mkoctfile-8.4.0 --verbose
checking for octave... /opt/local/bin/octave-8.4.0
checking for Octave's canonical_host_type...
aarch64-apple-darwin22.6.0
checking for Octave's include directory...
/opt/local/include/octave-8.4.0/octave
checking whether the C++ compiler works... yes
checking for C++ compiler default output file name... a.out
checking for suffix of executables...
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes
checking whether /usr/bin/clang++ -std=gnu++11 accepts -g... yes
checking how to run the C++ preprocessor... /usr/bin/clang++ -std=gnu++11 -E
checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /usr/bin/grep
checking for egrep... /usr/bin/grep -E
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking for sys/types.h... yes
checking for sys/stat.h... yes
checking for stdlib.h... yes
checking for string.h... yes
checking for memory.h... yes
checking for strings.h... yes
checking for inttypes.h... yes
checking for stdint.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... yes
checking ov-scalar.h usability... yes
checking ov-scalar.h presence... yes
checking for ov-scalar.h... yes
checking for cos in -lm... yes
checking for cblas_dgemm in -lgslcblas... no
configure: error: gslcblas library not found

error: pkg: error running the configure script for gsl
error: called from
    configure_make at line 107 column 9
    install at line 202 column 7
    pkg at line 619 column 9

>>

As I'm in the process of cleaning the MacPorts Octave package Portfiles to include the move to GitHub, I again ran into this issue.

The patch file was applied, but the configure error persists (configure.ac.in is never used). I then applied the same patch to configure itself: same result.

In my current Octave installation the path to ov-scalar.h is

/opt/local/include/octave-8.4.0/octave/ov-scalar.h

original submission:

> the following change fixes the problem for me

the patch didn't show in the original submission, trying again ...

$ diff -u configure.ac.in configure.ac.in.new
--- configure.ac.in        2021-12-13 16:16:41.000000000 +0100
+++ configure.ac.in.new        2021-12-13 16:15:25.000000000 +0100
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@
   [AC_LANG_SOURCE(
      [[
 #include "ov-scalar.h"
-main()
+int main()
 {
   octave_scalar x (1.234);
   bool y = x.isreal ();
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@
 #include "ov-scalar.h"
 #include "ovl.h"
 #include "parse.h"
-main()
+int main()
 {
   octave_value_list ovl = octave::feval ("sin", octave_value (1.234));
   return 0;