How to handle octave configure error in package instalation
If you try to install a package in Octave programming language using
pkg install package_name.tar.gz
you might encounter this error which stops the installation of package.
example :
configure: WARNING: no mkoctfile found on path
./configure: line 2918: conftest.cc: command not found
configure: error: Could not run
the configure script returned the following error: checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables...
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking for mkoctfile... no
error: called from `pkg>configure_make' in file /usr/share/octave/3.2.4/m/pkg/pkg.m near line 1240, column 2
error: called from:
error: /usr/share/octave/3.2.4/m/pkg/pkg.m at line 714, column 5
error: /usr/share/octave/3.2.4/m/pkg/pkg.m at line 287, column 7
For me the reason was i have not installed the octave header files when i m installing octave on my linux (ubuntu 11.10). So installing the headers for my octave version fixed the problem.
sudo apt-get install octave3.2-headers libncurses5-dev
And after the installation finished run octave in super user mood to install the packages.