bugGNU Octave - Bugs: bug #41924, build_packages - probelms with path

 
 

bug #41924: build_packages - probelms with path

Submitter:  None
Submitted:  Fri 21 Mar 2014 04:04:40 PM UTC
   
 
Category:  Libraries Severity:  3 - Normal
Priority:  5 - Normal Item Group:  None
Status:  Fixed Assigned to:  None
Originator Name:  Martin Hepperle Originator Email:  -email is unavailable-
Open/Closed:  * Closed Release:  * 3.8.1
Operating System:  * Microsoft Windows Fixed Release:  None
Planned Release:  None
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Sun 01 Feb 2015 06:25:37 PM UTC, comment #4: 

Yes - nsis installer should prevent users installing to names with spaces, and shortcuts point to a .bat file which will prepend the octave path before anything else.

John Donoghue <lostbard>
Group Member
Sun 01 Feb 2015 05:07:33 PM UTC, comment #3: 

@John D.: Is this effectively fixed for the 4.0. release because of the two patches that are mentioned?  Can this bug report be closed?

Rik <rik5>
Group administrator
Tue 11 Nov 2014 09:21:40 PM UTC, comment #2: 

Just as an update on this:

http://hg.octave.org/mxe-octave/rev/8c11c5a1a939 prevents users from installing octave to a destination with spaces in the file name.

http://hg.octave.org/mxe-octave/rev/70480095b6ed  uses a batch file to start octave and prepends the octave path to the path.

John Donoghue <lostbard>
Group Member
Sat 22 Mar 2014 03:40:42 PM UTC, comment #1: 


> - Octave should make sure that it only uses the tools (like sh)
> from its binary directory and not from what it finds in the
> search path.


IMO it would be better to either:
- Prepend, rather then append, <OCTAVE_HOME>/bin to Windows' PATH while starting Octave;
...or if this is not possible,
- Start Octave from a batch file along the lines of:

@echo off
set PATH=<OCTAVE_HOME>/bin;%PATH%
start octave
exit

Even better if %PATH% here could contain only the essential Windows subdirectories plus <Ghostscript>/bin (in a path w/o spaces).
This way all kind of interfering junk can be weeded out of the PATH before that is inherited by Octave's process slot.


> - Octave should be able to handle spaces, parentheses, Umlauts
> etc. as one would expect today in the 21st centrury where some
> people are already beyond the ASCII character set. For example
> the GUI prototype does not show Umlaits and special characters
> properly.


This has been brought up a number of times; AFAIU we need a complete Unicode build chain and maybe an overhaul in some dependencies.
As Octave is a *nix program, running it on Windows gives the union of the limitations of both OSes.
So while you're right here (IMO) it isn't something that is to be expected soon.

Philip Nienhuis <philipnienhuis>
Group Member
Fri 21 Mar 2014 04:04:40 PM UTC, original submission:  

I tried to install Octave 3.8.1 on my Windows 7 machine.

After copying the files I tried to run "build_packages.m" in the src directory.
It failed with a sh syntax error complaining about ')' at line 0 etc.

The install directory was "D:\Program Files (x86)\Octave\octave-3.8.1" and I learned that this problem was already reported and followed back to spaces in the path name.

Ok, so I moved Octave to a path like "D:\Program_Files_(x86)\Octave\octave-3.8.1".

This failed also and after a while I figured it might have to do the the parentheses.

Ok, so I moved Octave to a path like "D:/Programme/Octave/octave-3.8.1/src". No spaces, no parentheses.

The next try failed also with another sh error. I noted that teh sh that was executed, was taken from the installation of another sh which was found earlier in the search path.

So my conclusions are:
- Octave should make sure that it only uses the tools (like sh) from its binary directory and not from what it finds in the search path.
- Octave should be able to handle spaces, parentheses, Umlauts etc. as one would expect today in the 21st centrury where some people are already beyond the ASCII character set. For example the GUI prototype does not show Umlaits and special characters properly. Maybe another font would be needed?
I know all this is difficult, but I would encourage all testers to use path names with special characters and also try to use quotes in path names in scripts whenever possible.

Sorry for bashing a bit around, but in general Octave is great but for many first time useres these things are big hurdles.


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    Date Changed by Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced by
    2015-02-01 rik5 StatusNone Fixed
        Open/ClosedOpen Closed

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