MATLAB/Octave Help: Installation Instructions
Installing Octave

The following instructions will help you install Octave 3.0.3 on your PC.
  1. Download the installation file by clicking on the link below:  

Note for Linux users: Most Linux distributions include Octave as standard and if it is not already installed on your system you can install the Octave package from your installation CDs or the Internet. Starting the Octave interpreter under Linux is as simple as typing the ’octave’ command.

  1. Run the downloaded file to install Octave in your C: drive. There will be startup folder containing a startup icon and some documentation including a PDF version of the Octave Manual and a Quick Reference card . The startup folder can be opened by clicking Start/All Programs/GNU Octave.
  2. Start the program by clicking the startup icon and wait for the prompt to appear.  You should see something like this: 

  1.  You can now start entering commands into Octave by typing expressions and then pressing the Enter key. 

Changing Directory in Octave
By default, Octave will look for your codes in the folder C:\Program Files\Octave.  You can check this using the present working directory ’pwd’ command as follows:

octave-3.0.3.exe:1>pwd
ans=C:\Program Files\Octave

It’s a good idea to create a new folder in which you can save all your code files.  For example, create the folder "M Octave Codes" in "My Documents" and make this new folder the current working directory by using the change directory command ’cd’ as follows:

octave-3.0.3.exe:2>cd "C:/Documents and Settings/My Documents/My Octave Codes"
octave-3.0.3.exe:3>pwd
ans=C:\Documents and Settings\My Documents\My Octave Codes

An alternative way to change the working directory is by editing the properties of the Octave Desktop Icon.  Right click the Octave Desktop Icon, select "Properties" and then edit the "Start In:" folder to be your code folder.  When you start Octave, the working directory will automatically be the folder you specified in the "Start In:" field.

Using the Editor to create Script Files
The default text editor in Octave is the SciTE program.  To open the editor, just type the command ’edit’ at the prompt.

octave-3.0.3.exe:1>edit

The editor opens in a new window.

You can type up commands you want Octave to run in the Editor and save them in an M-file  so that you do not have to type them again if you need to rerun the commands.  For example, let’s create the following simple script file to plot a sine wave.  Type the following commands in the editor:

%Script file to plot a sine wave
x=0:0.01:2*pi;
plot(x, sin(x));
xlabel(’x’);
ylabel(’y=sin x’);

Then select File>Save As and save the file as script1.m in your code folder.
To run the file, go to the Octave prompt and type

octave-3.0.3.exe:2>script1

You should see a figure window with the sine plot.
Printing a Figure in Octave
To print the plotted figure in encapsulated postscript format, use the following command

octave-3.0.3.exe:3>print -depsc graph1.eps

This will save the plot as graph1.eps in your code folder.

Otherwise, if you would like to copy the figure to a word processor and then print it, go to the figure window and select the icon corresponding to the "Copy the plot to the clipboard" command.


You can then paste the plot to your favourite word processor.