Re: Second attampt at new octave-forge web site

[Joe Koski]

on 10/17/06 4:20 PM, David Bateman at address@hidden wrote:

> Joe Koski wrote:
>> on 10/17/06 1:03 PM, David Bateman at address@hidden wrote:
>> 
>>> Joe Koski wrote:
>>>> on 10/17/06 2:02 AM, David Bateman at address@hidden wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> Joe Koski wrote:
>>>>>> on 10/16/06 2:05 PM, David Bateman at address@hidden wrote:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>   
>>>>>>> Dear All,
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Soren and I have been working to address the remaining issues on the
>>>>>>> octave-forge website and the issues raised from our previous test site.
>>>>>>> Please check http://octave.dbateman.org
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> The changes we made include
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> * The most noticeable change is that we changed the site from green to
>>>>>>> blue, to make a clear distinction between the octave and octave-forge
>>>>>>> sites. We also changed the sombrero logo to green. Neither Soren or I
>>>>>>> are web designers, so any other thoughts would be appreciated on how to
>>>>>>> address this request from John.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> * The front-page now has a "Recent News" heading. There is also a News
>>>>>>> Archive that replaces the RELEASE-NOTES from the monolithic
>>>>>>> octave-forge.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> * The package page now uses javascript to hide the description, till the
>>>>>>> package title is clicked. This allows a much denser list of packages
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> * All of the webpages have been passed through http;//validator.w3.org
>>>>>>> and the CSS file through http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/. There is
>>>>>>> one remaining errors of the "text-align:" in the div#sf_logo section. If
>>>>>>> you know a fix please tell?
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> * The categories index has been made consistent, and alphabetically
>>>>>>> sorted
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> * The package function references now contain only the functions in the
>>>>>>> package itself listed alphabetically. The full categories index is still
>>>>>>> available from the documentation page. This makes a clear distinction
>>>>>>> between code in one package or another and those functions in octave
>>>>>>> itself
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> * The tar-balls of the packages have the same sub-directory name as the
>>>>>>> package itself.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> The problems that we know remain and don't propose to fix before a
>>>>>>> release are
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> * The GPC and graceplot packages have not been converted to the package
>>>>>>> manager
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> * The CSS file has the one remaining error discussed above
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> * We really should move www/ to doc/htdocs to simplify the octave-forge
>>>>>>> source tree and make the install on the website easier.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Can you please suggest any further changes that you'd like to this site.
>>>>>>> If there are no further comments, Soren and I propose to take the site
>>>>>>> live later this week.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Regards
>>>>>>> David
>>>>>>>     
>>>>>> David,
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> First, let me say that I think that you and Soren are headed in the right
>>>>>> direction with octave-forge. I think the new package scheme, once worked
>>>>>> out, will be better for both users and maintainers.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> My initial comments here are in my role as the perfect analog for the
>>>>>> average "dumber-than-snot" Mac user.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> For the record, this is with OS X 10.4.8, Xcode-2.4 developer tools, and
>>>>>> octave-2.9.9 built with g95 on a G5 PowerPC Mac. This is the latest OS,
>>>>>> but
>>>>>> not the latest Intel machine.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> The first thing that I noticed was that Mac OS X has a habit of
>>>>>> un-gzipping
>>>>>> any downloaded file into a just plain .tar file. Yes, I could find the
>>>>>> correct box to check or uncheck in the Finder preferences, but the
>>>>>> average
>>>>>> Mac user doesn't usually go there. Should pkg be smart enough to look at
>>>>>> the
>>>>>> extension? I know that .tar.gz has other alternates such as .tgz. Excuse
>>>>>> me
>>>>>> if you have already thought about all of this.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> As an initial test, I downloaded image-1.0.0.tar.gz from your test site,
>>>>>> and, as I said, this immediately became image-1.0.0.tar. I moved the .tar
>>>>>> file into a folder called /Downloads_and_Updates/octave-forge_packages
>>>>>> and
>>>>>> tried
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>   pkg install image-1.0.0.tar
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> but I got an error, so I gzipped it back into a .tar.gz and tried
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>   pkg install image-1.0.0.tar.gz
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> and I got pretty much the same errors:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> GNU Octave, version 2.9.9 (powerpc-apple-darwin8.8.0).
>>>>>> Copyright (C) 2006 John W. Eaton.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> <snip>
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> octave:1> pkg install image-1.0.0.tar.gz
>>>>>> warning: You have not defined an installation prefix, so the following
>>>>>> will
>>>>>> be used: /Users/jakoski/octave/
>>>>>> tar: image-1.0.0.tar.gz: Cannot open: No such file or directory
>>>>>> tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
>>>>>> warning: implicit conversion from scalar to string
>>>>>> error: tar: tar exited with status =
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Octave was started in the same working directory as image-1.0.0.tar.gz.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Then I tried help pkg, and noticed that it's not complete yet. How to fix
>>>>>> this should probably be referenced somewhere in the final help package. I
>>>>>> have no problem with the default location for the package of ~/octave.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> My first guess is that octave is having trouble with the Apple tar, but I
>>>>>> can't confirm that. The irony is that on my old Mac, I had to type man
>>>>>> gnutar to get the man file for tar, although tar -xvf etc. works just
>>>>>> fine.
>>>>>> On the new Mac OS, man tar works just fine, as does tar.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> One other issue. On Macs, to install files into /usr/local (which doesn't
>>>>>> exist until the Mac user creates it), you must, typically, "sudo make
>>>>>> install" and then enter your "administrator" password. Should there be a
>>>>>> provision for installing into protected areas, or should that be left for
>>>>>> only the more experienced users? Yes, you could also, like any *IX, log
>>>>>> in
>>>>>> as root and do the installation.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> As always, I can try things to see if they work. Let me know what to try
>>>>>> next.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Joe
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>   
>>>>> Joe,
>>>>> 
>>>>> I suspect this might be fixed in the CVS. Could you take the pkg
>>>>> function from
>>>>> 
>>>>> http://velveeta.che.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/~checkout~/octave/scripts/
>>>>> pk
>>>>> g/
>>>>> pkg.m?rev=1.21;content-type=text%2Fplain
>>>>> 
>>>>> and use it instead to see if it helps? You'll also need
>>>>> 
>>>>> http://velveeta.che.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/~checkout~/octave/scripts/
>>>>> mi
>>>>> sc
>>>>> ellaneous/compare_versions.m?rev=1.1;content-type=text%2Fplain
>>>>> 
>>>>> Regards
>>>>> David
>>>> David,
>>>> 
>>>> Some progress. I got the CVS files that you suggested, and placed them in
>>>> the folder with the tar.gz.
>>>> 
>>>> When I tried the run, I got:
>>>> 
>>>> octave:1> ls
>>>> compare_versions.m      image-1.0.0.tar.gz      pkg.m
>>>> octave:2> pkg install image-1.0.0.tar.gz
>>>> tar: image-1.0.0.tar.gz: Cannot open: No such file or directory
>>>> tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
>>>> warning: implicit conversion from scalar to string
>>>> error: tar: tar exited with status =
>>>> octave:2> which tar
>>>> tar is the user-defined function from the file
>>>> /usr/local/share/octave/2.9.9/m/miscellaneous/tar.m
>>>> octave:3> exit
>>>> 
>>>> Then I tried:
>>>> 
>>>> jakoski$ tar -xvzf image-1.0.0.tar.gz -C ~/octave/
>>>> 
>>>> and the .tar.gz unpacked correctly into /octave in my home directory, but,
>>>> obviously, did not run Makefile to build the .oct files.
>>>> 
>>>> Should I be poking around in tar.m looking for the reason? Do I need the
>>>> CVS
>>>> tar.m?
>>>> 
>>>> Joe
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> It should be in untar.m rather than tar.m. However I don't see anything
>>> there that should be the cause of the issue. Perhaps you need the
>>> absolute path to tar. Could you try
>>> 
>>> pkg install <path_to_pkg>/image-1.0.0.tar.gz
>>> 
>>> and see if it helps... I'm at a loss to explain why you are seeing the
>>> problem like this..
>>> 
>>> Regards
>>> David
>> 
>> David,
>> 
>> First, I tried placing quotes around the package name without success, then
>> I tried the full path to the package.
>> 
>> octave:1> pkg install "image-1.0.0.tar.gz"
>> tar: image-1.0.0.tar.gz: Cannot open: No such file or directory
>> tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
>> warning: implicit conversion from scalar to string
>> error: tar: tar exited with status =
>> octave:1> pkg install
>> /Downloads_and_Updates/octave-forge_packages/image-1.0.0.tar.gz
>> tar: This does not look like a tar archive
>> tar: Skipping to next header
>> tar: Archive contains obsolescent base-64 headers
>> tar: Read 7212 bytes from
>> /Downloads_and_Updates/octave-forge_packages/image-1.0.0.tar.gz
>> tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
>> warning: implicit conversion from scalar to string
>> error: tar: tar exited with status =
>> octave:1> 
>> 
>> The second try is interesting. It tried to open something, at least.
>> 
>> I then tried
>> 
>> untar("/Downloads_and_Updates/octave-forge_packages/image-1.0.0.tar.gz",
>> "/Users/jakoski/octave");
>> 
>> and I got the same errors as with pkg and the full path. Therefore the
>> problem is definitely within untar.m.
>> 
>> Finally, to see if it is a syntax problem, I tried
>> 
>> octave:1> pkg("install","image-1.0.0.tar.gz");
>> tar: image-1.0.0.tar.gz: Cannot open: No such file or directory
>> tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
>> warning: implicit conversion from scalar to string
>> error: tar: tar exited with status =
>> octave:1> 
>> 
>> Which is at least consistent.
>> 
>> Next?
>> 
>> Joe
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> And if you type system("which tar") in octave? Where is your tar binary
> coming from? Note in untar the call to tar is "tar -x -v -f %s". Does
> the Mac version of tar require the "-z" flag for gzipped files, or can
> it probe the type without the "-z" flag?
> 
> D.
David,

OK, now we're almost making progress. My experience is that on the Mac, tar
is not smart enough to figure out if a file is zipped, hence my -xvzf when I
unpacked the .tar.gz from the command line. That may NOT matter, because the
Mac usually gunzips files automatically during the download process. (For
some installations, VisIt, for example, I've sometimes had to re-gzip files
before their binary installer would work.)

As for which tar is used:

octave:1> system("which tar")
/usr/bin/tar
ans = 0
octave:2> system("which gunzip")
/usr/bin/gunzip
ans = 0

For version information:

jakoski$ tar --version
tar (GNU tar) 1.14
Copyright (C) 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This program comes with NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
You may redistribute it under the terms of the GNU General Public License;
see the file named COPYING for details.
Written by John Gilmore and Jay Fenlason.
Modified to support extended attributes.

Joe-Koskis-Computer:/Downloads_and_Updates/octave-forge_packages jakoski$
gunzip --version
gunzip 1.3.5
(2002-09-30)
CAN-2005-0758 CAN-2005-0988 CAN-2005-1228
Copyright 2002 Free Software Foundation
Copyright 1992-1993 Jean-loup Gailly
This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
You may redistribute copies of this program
under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
For more information about these matters, see the file named COPYING.
Compilation options:
DIRENT UTIME STDC_HEADERS HAVE_UNISTD_H HAVE_MEMORY_H HAVE_STRING_H
HAVE_LSTAT 
Written by Jean-loup Gailly.

(Note the last line of the tar --version output.)


Then, to try the .tar (no gzip) file with pkg

octave:1> pkg install image-1.0.0.tar
tar: image-1.0.0.tar: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
warning: implicit conversion from scalar to string
error: tar: tar exited with status =
octave:1> exit

Then I tried from the bash shell prompt, in the same directory, immediately
after exiting octave, and

jakoski$ tar -x -v -f image-1.0.0.tar -C ~/octave

works correctly (the files go to ~/octave), as does,

jakoski$ tar -x -v -f image-1.0.0.tar -C /Users/jakoski/octave

For some reason, untar has trouble with the file name. Have the folks as
Apple helped us again?

Joe