gnuoctave/octave repository overview

⁠Docker images of GNU Octave

The Octave images can be run by

• Docker⁠:

  # Obtain image
  
  docker pull docker.io/gnuoctave/octave:9.2.0
  
  # Start container (command-line interface)
  
  docker run -it --rm gnuoctave/octave:9.2.0 octave
  

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• Podman⁠: as before, replace docker with podman.
• Singularity⁠: most recommended for GUI mode.

  singularity pull docker://gnuoctave/octave:9.2.0
  
  # Start container (command-line interface)
  
  singularity run octave_9.2.0.sif
  

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See below for starting Octave with GUI.

⁠Easy installation

An installation script is provided, that can be called directly with this shell command:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gnu-octave/docker/main/install.sh)" -t docker

To remove the installation, type:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gnu-octave/docker/main/install.sh)" -u -f

It creates links in $HOME/bin, as well as a Desktop entry, to start the Octave as if it was installed by the Linux distribution.

Note: The system must have either Docker (= Podman) or Singularity installed and the user account must be setup to use those tools properly. Please adapt the shell command after -t respectively.

⁠Starting the Octave GUI

Using Singularity, start Octave with GUI with this command:

singularity exec --bind /run/user octave_9.2.0.sif octave --gui

Using Docker or Podman run:

docker run \
  --rm \
  --network=host \
  --env="DISPLAY" \
  --env="HOME=$HOME" \
  --env="XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR" \
  --user $(id -u):$(id -g) \
  --volume="$HOME:$HOME:rw" \
  --volume="/dev:/dev:rw" \
  --volume="/run/user:/run/user:rw" \
  --workdir="$HOME" \
  docker.io/gnuoctave/octave:9.2.0 octave --gui

For old Octave 4.x.x versions you might additionally pass the --env=QT_GRAPHICSSYSTEM=native environment variable.

The following error results from a missing $HOME/.Xauthority file:

Authorization required, but no authorization protocol specified
octave: unable to open X11 DISPLAY
octave: disabling GUI features

Create this file via ln -s -f "$XAUTHORITY" $HOME/.Xauthority.

⁠Further reading

• https://siko1056.github.io/blog/2021/06/10/octave-docker.html⁠ A longer blog article about this project including descriptions how to use and customize these images for specific needs.