[Octave-bug-tracker] [bug #38937] Remove "X11 DISPLAY environment variable not set" warning OR make --no-window-system a short option

[anonymous]

URL:
  <http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?38937>

                 Summary: Remove "X11 DISPLAY environment variable not set"
warning OR make --no-window-system a short option
                 Project: GNU Octave
            Submitted by: None
            Submitted on: Wed 08 May 2013 03:00:28 PM UTC
                Category: Interpreter
                Severity: 3 - Normal
                Priority: 5 - Normal
              Item Group: Feature Request
                  Status: None
             Assigned to: None
         Originator Name: Karl Wette
        Originator Email: address@hidden
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
                 Release: 3.6.2
        Operating System: Any

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Details:

When the X11 environment variable $DISPLAY is not set, Octave prints the
warning:

warning: X11 DISPLAY environment variable not set

This is unnecessary noise when running Octave scripts in an environment with
no X11 display, e.g. a computing cluster node. It seems reasonable to me that,
when $DISPLAY is not set, to assume that Octave is running in an environment
with no window system, and generate an error only if the script tries to do
something which needs a window, e.g. make a plot.

I appreciate that there is a command-line option, --no-window-system, which
can be used to silence this warning. But this leads to another problem: since
this is a long option, one cannot combine it with other options in a she-bang
line, e.g.

#!/usr/bin/octave -qH --no-window-system

does not work. At least if --no-window-system had a short option form, e.g.
-W, one could include it in a she-bang line with other short options.

So in short, please consider either:

* removing the warning when $DISPLAY is not set, OR

* adding a short option for --no-window-system

Thanks in advance!




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