NEWS.6.md

Summary of bugs fixed for version 6.4.0 (2021-10-30)

For (bug #XXXXX) see https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?XXXXX

Improvements and fixes

• Reduce memory usage in BISTs for copyobj, hgsave (bug #57591).
• hgsave.m, copyobj.m: Use 'qt' graphics toolkit in BISTs.
• main.cc: Use getopt to parse command line arguments (bug #60886).
• main.cc: Remove invalid case (bug #60886).
• Disable getopt error reporting in wrapper program (bug #60886).
• interp1.m: Don't interpret later numeric input as xi (bug #60967).
• pkg: Improve similar package name suggestion (bug #61067).
• Store parent name in function object when caching parents in scope (bug #61105).
• Avoid internal error and segfault with eval and scripts (bug #61191).
• rmpath: Prevent removing the current directory from the load path (bug #61216).

GUI

• Fix missing interpreter event in octave-scintilla.
• Fix opening a file in a custom editor (bug #60990).

Documentation

• Improve docstring for disable_diagonal_matrix, disable_diagonal_matrix, and disable_range (patch #10089).
• cbrt: Clarify that function errors for non-real input.
• dsearchn.m: Added optional distance output description (bug #61156).
• Add Hungarian translation for project description files.
• Document fsolve output "info" -2 (bug #61310).

Build system

• Correct error message for incompatible CXSparse (bug #61385).

Summary of bugs fixed for version 6.3.0 (2021-07-11)

For (bug #XXXXX) see https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?XXXXX

Important notice

• This bug fix release breaks ABI compatiblity with Octave 6.2.0. Re-build binaries (like .oct or .mex files) when updating to this version.

Improvements and fixes

• ls-hdf5.cc: Avoid throwing inside HDF5 function (bug #60081).
• ls-hdf5.cc: Handle non-zero terminated type strings (bug #60081).
• Fix occasional segfault in symbfact (bug #60101).
• fsolve.m: Fix undefined output error when using Output function (bug #60144).
• Fix compilation error with iconv_t on Solaris (bug #60162).
• build: Check for stropts.h (bug #60163).
• Avoid ambiguous call to pow (bug #60169).
• Fix context link when creating handle to nested function.
• print.m: Warn when figure is too large to be printed to output page (bug #60236).
• Defer clearing function vars until stack frame is deleted (bug #60137).
• Avoid memory leaks when returning handles to nested functions.
• Hold references to closure frames in anon functions if needed (bug #60237).
• eigs: Prevent possible segmentation fault at exit (bug #60311).
• Issue warning when gnuplot graphics toolkit is initialized.
• mpoles.m: Fix detection of pole multiplicity (bug #60384).
• Perform shutdown actions in interpreter destructor (bug #60334).
• build: Make relocation of dependencies with Octave optional (bug #60413).
• qz.cc: Return correct number of eigenvalues (bug #60357).
• qz.cc: Let test pass with LAPACK 3.9.1 and earlier versions (bug #60357).
• pkg.m: Use default prefixes unless otherwise set previously (bug #60472).
• betaincinv.m: Correctly handle small inputs (bug #60528).
• betaincinv.m: Correctly handle inputs very close to 1.0 (bug #60528).
• unistd-wrappers.c: Allocate sufficient memory for new_argv (bug #60535).
• Mark system functions correctly if OCTAVE_HOME is non-canonical (bug #60554).
• Mark compiled system functions correctly if OCTAVE_HOME is non-canonical (bug #60554).
• Fix error if test suite is run before Octave is installed (bug #60554).
• lo-array-errwarn.cc: Include <limits> (bug #60470).
• Use std::size_t and std::ptrdiff_t in C++ code (bug #60471).
• Use std::size_t in more instances (bug #60471).
• Return proper number of stack frames for dbstack (N) call (bug #60531).
• Avoid ambiguous match of overloaded function (bug #60531).
• lscov.m: Relax BIST tolerance to pass with OpenBLAS (bug #60552).
• print: Fix error when "px" word is present in a figure (bug #60641).
• logm.m: Fix check for real negative values in complex vector (bug #60738).
• build: Set necessary flags to allow execution on Windows Vista (bug #60746).
• Declare base_parser destructor virtual.
• hist.m: Improve handling and docstring for third parameter "norm" (bug #60783).
• logm.m: Allow tolerance in check for real negative values in complex vector (bug #60738).
• expm.m, logm.m: Use function isdiag to detect if input is a diagonal matrix (bug #60738).
• tests: Relax tolerance for some tests on macOS.
• logspace.m: Mark tests as known to fail on macOS (bug #55538).
• hist.m: Use deterministic test (bug #60783).
• rgb2ind.m: Reduce memory usage and eliminate randomness in test.
• logm.m: Allow larger tolerance for test on macOS.
• build: Use correct path to octave binary in build tree on macOS.
• build: Fix typo in folder to libraries when building .oct or .mex files.
• build: Set DL_LDFLAGS in the build rules for .oct or .mex files.
• rgb2ind.m: Suppress output in test.
• Improve documentation for log2 function (bug #60817).
• ind2sub: Fix typo in "see also" section of docstring (bug #60842).
• mrdivide, mldivide: Document that functions might return minimum norm solutions (bug #60839).
• Fix scoping issue for handles to sibling nested functions (bug #60845).
• ls-mat5.cc: Avoid integer overflow in calculation of buffer size for zlib (bug #55427).
• Move top-level REPL from interpreter to evaluator.
• Avoid crash with dbquit when executing command in terminal from GUI (bug #60813).

GUI

• Fix calling external editor (bug #60198).
• Fix missing file suffix .m when saving a new script (bug #60214).
• Do not run files that are not saved as Octave files (bug #60214).
• Fix confirm overwrite for native editor file "save as" dialogs (bug #60214).
• Fix crash when GUI tries to restore missing previous Octave dir (bug #60255).
• Fix restoring the horizontal position of docked GUI widgets (bug #59426).
• Prevent floating widgets from re-opening after restart (bug #60279).
• Avoid crash in GUI for rmdir("") (bug #60473).
• Fix EOL mode when saving files under new names (bug #60585).
• Fix auto indentation of switch-structure in GUI editor (bug #60649).
• Avoid crash when closing GUI with open editor tabs (bug #60500).
• octave-qscintilla.cc (contextmenu_run): Fix keyboard command handling.

Documentation

• Improve Differential Equations chapter and example for lsode (bug #57508).
• Clarify usage of "Depends" keyword in package DESCRIPTION file (bug #60053).
• Add note that wildcard patterns for save are glob patterns (bug #60157).
• Change example for Delaunay triangulation to match the generating code (bug #60216).
• Document single precision issues with OpenGL graphics toolkits (bug #59418).
• Minor changes to documentation of single precision issues with OpenGL (bug #59418).
• Expand on documentation for command syntax (bug #60084).
• isprop.m: Document that function only works on graphics objects in Octave 6.X (bug #60295).
• Explain how to write dual-purpose executable scripts and Octave functions (bug #60291).
• Update keyword docstrings (bug #60275).
• Use Texinfo commands to improve transpose() docstring rendering.
• betainc.m, betaincinv.m: Correct non-TeX definition of beta incomplete integral.
• Grammarcheck documentation ahead of 6.3 release.
• Spellcheck documentation ahead of 6.3 release.

Summary of bugs fixed for version 6.2.0 (2021-02-19):

See: https://www.octave.org/news/release/2021/02/20/octave-6.2.0-released.html

For (bug #XXXXX) see https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?XXXXX

Improvements

• bicgstab.m, cgs.m: Fix typo in "iter_min" variable name (bug #60071).
• Compute with NA correctly on MIPS architecture (bug #59830).
• Fix lookup of "caller" stack frame (bug #59847).
• Also wait on main_thread after interpreter shuts down (bug #56952).
• Fix symbol lookup issue with anonymous functions (bug #55989).
• Line buffer input in terminal_reader class.
• qr: Error for dense A and B with three output arguments (bug #58944).
• strmatch.m: Always return column vector for Matlab compatibility (bug #59917)
• Avoid crash when evalin global variables into existence in script (bug #59937)
• Avoid crash on null statement list (bug #59938).
• Fix ignored output from user function in left side of assignment (bug #59704).
• Temporarily set lvalue list to null (bug #59704).
• fminbnd.m: do not ignore "OutputFcn" (bug #59901).
• load-path.cc: Reduce number of times "canonicalize_file_name" is called (bug #59711).
• interpn.m: Use size_equal for 10X speedup in cset 067b663529bb (bug #59856).
• interpn.m: Fix check for scattered point coordinates (bug #59856).
• Avoid YYUSE in Octave parser files (see bug #59806).
• struct2hdl.m: Set "units" property early.
• load-path.cc: Avoid copying string for loop variable.
• pcg.m: Return correct FLAG and correct RELRES output (bug #59776).
• Use static keyword on regexp pattern in file_stat (bug #59706).
• stat: Improve regular expression for UNC roots on Windows (bug #59706).
• stat: Use "make_absolute" instead of "canonicalize_file_name" on Windows (bug #59706).
• Improve class_simple function handle function lookup (bug #59661).
• hdl2struct.m: store hidden text properties (bug #57241).
• Mark script created with commands from history as modified.
• replem.m: Fix operations with sparse matrices (bug #59705).
• ode_event_handler.m: Fix mishandling of event edge types and multiple events (bug #59709).
• Increase size of dynamic variable new_argv by 1 to avoid indexing out of array.
• Fix incorrect results for set functions with "legacy" option (bug #59708).
• dir.m: Return folder (not including file) in field "folder" (bug #59689).
• Avoid memory leak with function handles (bug #59659).
• Avoid dispatch error if method argument is a function handle (bug #59617).
• Avoid crash due to accessing first element of empty list (bug #59656).
• Don't propagate prevailing isargout info through mexCallMATLAB (bug #59597).
• Show original error when failing to create a graphics object (bug #59620).
• Fix regression with superclass lookup in classdef constructors (bug #59602).
• Allow Octave class execution_exception to catch std::exception objects (bug #59592).

GUI

• Fix restoring editor session after having closed all tabs (bug #60051).
• Maybe convert TAB to SPC in GUI terminal pasted text (bug #59916).
• Make bracketed paste mode work in GUI terminal.
• Fix regression in variable editor when printing without selection.
• Avoid gui when octave is launched in non-interactive mode (bug #59628).
• file-editor-tab.cc (dtor): do not delete m_edit_area (bug #59628).
• Fix error when restoring previous main window layout (bug #59426).
• Improve default sizes of gui dock widgets.
• Clean up constructing main window layout of the gui.
• Fix focus command window after command execution (bug #59609).
• Check object size before plotting from variable editor (bug #56685).
• documentation.cc: Include missing header (bug #59553).

Build system / Tests

• Add default value to OCTAVE_MIPS_NAN configure macro for cross-compiling (bug #59830).
• tests: Function name should match file name (bug #59704).
• Avoid build errors with Qt4 (bug #59813).
• eigs.m: Make tests that depend on CHOLMOD conditional.
• tests: Make tests that depend on CXSparse conditional.
• build: Use SPARSE_XCPPFLAGS in CPP_FLAGS for libcorefcn (bug #59806).
• Add test case for bug #59661.
• hgsave.m: Allow test to run with qt or gnuplot graphics toolkits (bug #57241).

Documentation

• embedded.cc: Fix syntax error interpreter shutdown.
• Update Octave Project Developers copyright for the new year.
• Use the same comment style for copyright headers in .m files and shell scripts.

Summary of important user-visible changes for version 6.1.0 (2020-11-26):

General improvements

• The intersect, setdiff, setxor, union, and unique functions accept a new sorting option "stable" which will return output values in the same order as the input, rather than in ascending order.

• Complex RESTful web services can now be accessed by the webread and webwrite functions alongside with the weboptions structure. One major feature is the support for cookies to enable RESTful communication with the web service.

  Additionally, the system web browser can be opened by the web function.

• The linspace function now produces symmetrical sequences when the endpoints are symmetric. This is more intuitive and also compatible with recent changes made in Matlab R2019b.

• The underlying algorithm of the rand function has been changed. For single precision outputs, the algorithm has been fixed so that it produces values strictly in the range (0, 1). Previously, it could occasionally generate the right endpoint value of 1 (See bug #41742). In addition, the new implementation uses a uniform interval between floating point values in the range (0, 1) rather than targeting a uniform density (# of random integers / length along real number line).

• Numerical integration has been improved. The quadv function has been re-written so that it can compute integrands of periodic functions. At the same time, performance is better with ~3.5X fewer function evaluations required. A bug in quadgk that caused complex path integrals specified with "Waypoints" to occasionally be calculated in the opposite direction was fixed.

• The edit function option "editinplace" now defaults to true and the option "home" now defaults to the empty matrix []. Files will no longer be copied to the user's HOME directory for editing. The old behavior can be restored by setting "editinplace" to false and "home" to "~/octave".

• The format command supports two new options: uppercase and lowercase (default). With the default, print a lowercase 'e' for the exponent character in scientific notation and lowercase 'a-f' for the hex digits representing 10-15. With uppercase, print 'E' and 'A-F' instead. The previous uppercase formats, E and G, no longer control the case of the output.

  Additionally, the format command can be called with multiple options for controlling the format, spacing, and case in arbitrary order. For example:

    format long e uppercase loose

  Note, in the case of multiple competing format options the rightmost one is used, and, in case of an error, the previous format remains unchanged.

• L-value references (e.g., increment (++), decrement (--), and all in-place assignment operators (+=, -=, *=, /=, etc.)) are no longer allowed in anonymous functions.

• New warnings have been added about questionable uses of the colon ':' range operator. Each has a new warning ID so that it can be disabled if desired.

  Octave:colon-complex-argument : when any arg is complex
  Octave:colon-nonscalar-argument : when any arg is non-scalar

• The regexp and related functions now correctly handle and require strings in UTF-8 encoding. As with any other function that requires strings to be encoded in Octave's native encoding, you can use native2unicode to convert from your preferred locale. For example, the copyright symbol in UTF-8 is native2unicode (169, "latin1").

• The startup file octaverc can now be located in the platform dependent location for user local configuration files (e.g., ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/octave/octaverc on Unix-like operating systems or %APPDATA%\octave\octaverc on Windows).

• pkg describe now lists dependencies and inverse dependencies (i.e., other installed packages that depend on the package in question).

• pkg test now tests all functions in a package.

• When unloading a package, pkg now checks if any remaining loaded packages depend on the one to be removed. If this is the case pkg aborts with an explanatory error message. This behavior can be overridden with the -nodeps option.

• The command

    dbstop in CLASS at METHOD

  now works to set breakpoints in classdef constructors and methods.

Graphics backend

• The use of Qt4 for graphics and the GUI is deprecated in Octave version 6 and no further bug fixes will be made. Qt4 support will be removed completely in Octave version 7.

• The legend function has been entirely rewritten. This fixes a number of historical bugs, and also implements new properties such as "AutoUpdate" and "NumColumns". The gnuplot toolkit---which is no longer actively maintained---still uses the old legend function.

• The axis function was updated which resolved 10 bugs affecting axes to which "equal" had been applied.

• Graphic primitives now accept a color property value of "none" which is useful when a particular primitive needs to be hidden (for example, the Y-axis of an axes object with "ycolor" = "none") without hiding the entire primitive "visibility" = "off".

• A new property "FontSmoothing" has been added to text and axes objects that controls whether anti-aliasing is used during the rendering of characters. The default is "on" which produces smooth, more visually appealing text.

• The figure property "windowscrollwheelfcn"is now implemented. This makes it possible to provide a callback function to be executed when users manipulate the mouse wheel on a given figure.

• The figure properties "pointer", "pointershapecdata", and "pointershapehotspot" are now implemented. This makes it possible to change the shape of the cursor (pointer in Matlab-speak) displayed in a plot window.

• The figure property "paperpositionmode" now has the default "auto" rather than "manual". This change is more intuitive and is Matlab compatible.

• The appearance of patterned lines "LineStyle" = ":"|"--"|"-." has been improved for small widths ("LineWidth" less than 1.5 pixels) which is a common scenario.

• Printing to EPS files now uses a tight bounding box ("-tight" argument to print) by default. This makes more sense for EPS files which are normally embedded within other documents, and is Matlab compatible. If necessary use the "-loose" option to reproduce figures as they appeared in previous versions of Octave.

• The following print devices are no longer officially supported: cdr, corel, aifm, ill, cgm, hpgl, mf and dxf. A warning will be thrown when using those devices, and the code for supporting those formats will eventually be removed from a future version of Octave.

• The placement of text subscripts and superscripts has been re-engineered and now produces visually attractive results similar to Latex.

Matlab compatibility

• The function unique now returns column index vectors for the second and third outputs. When duplicate values are present, the default index to return is now the "first" occurrence. The previous Octave behavior, or Matlab behavior from releases prior to R2012b, can be obtained by using the "legacy" flag.

• The function setdiff with the "rows" argument now returns Matlab compatible results. The previous Octave behavior, or Matlab behavior from releases prior to R2012b, can be obtained by using the "legacy" flag.

• The functions intersect, setxor, and union now accept a "legacy" flag which changes the index values (second and third outputs) as well as the orientation of all outputs to match Matlab releases prior to R2012b.

• The function streamtube is Matlab compatible and plots tubes along streamlines which are scaled by the vector field divergence. The Octave-only extension ostreamtube can be used to visualize the flow expansion and contraction of the vector field due to the local crossflow divergence.

• The interpreter now supports handles to nested functions.

• The graphics properties "LineWidth" and "MarkerSize" are now measured in points, not pixels. Compared to previous versions of Octave, some lines and markers will appear 4/3 larger.

• The meta.class property "SuperClassList" has been renamed "Superclasslist" for Matlab compatibility. The original name will exist as an alias until Octave version 8.1.

• Inline functions created by the function inline are now of type "inline" when interrogated with the class function. In previous versions of Octave, the class returned was "function_handle". This change is Matlab compatible. Inline functions are deprecated in both Matlab and Octave and support may eventually be removed. Anonymous functions can be used to replace all instances of inline functions.

• The function javaaddpath now prepends new directories to the existing dynamic classpath by default. To append them instead, use the new "-end" argument. Multiple directories may now be specified in a cell array of strings.

• An undocumented function gui_mainfcn has been added, for compatibility with figures created with Matlab's GUIDE.

• Several validator functions of type mustBe* have been added. See the list of new functions below.

Alphabetical list of new functions added in Octave 6

• auto_repeat_debug_command
• commandhistory
• commandwindow
• filebrowser
• is_same_file
• lightangle
• mustBeFinite
• mustBeGreaterThan
• mustBeGreaterThanOrEqual
• mustBeInteger
• mustBeLessThan
• mustBeLessThanOrEqual
• mustBeMember
• mustBeNegative
• mustBeNonempty
• mustBeNonNan
• mustBeNonnegative
• mustBeNonpositive
• mustBeNonsparse
• mustBeNonzero
• mustBeNumeric
• mustBeNumericOrLogical
• mustBePositive
• mustBeReal
• namedargs2cell
• newline
• ode23s
• ostreamtube
• rescale
• rotx
• roty
• rotz
• stream2
• stream3
• streamline
• streamtube
• uisetfont
• verLessThan
• web
• weboptions
• webread
• webwrite
• workspace

Deprecated functions and properties

The following functions and properties have been deprecated in Octave 6 and will be removed from Octave 8 (or whatever version is the second major release after 6):

• Functions

    Function         | Replacement
    -----------------|------------------
    runtests         | oruntests

• Properties

    Object           | Property      | Value
    -----------------|---------------|------------
                     |               |

• The environment variable used by mkoctfile for linker flags is now LDFLAGS rather than LFLAGS. LFLAGS is deprecated, and a warning is emitted if it is used, but it will continue to work.

Removed functions and properties

The following functions and properties were deprecated in Octave 4.4 and have been removed from Octave 6.

• Functions

    Function         | Replacement
    -----------------|------------------
    chop             | sprintf for visual results
    desktop          | isguirunning
    tmpnam           | tempname
    toascii          | double
    java2mat         | __java2mat__

• Properties

    Object           | Property                  | Value
    -----------------|---------------------------|-----------------------
    annotation       | edgecolor ("rectangle")   |
    axes             | drawmode                  |
    figure           | doublebuffer              |
                     | mincolormap               |
                     | wvisual                   |
                     | wvisualmode               |
                     | xdisplay                  |
                     | xvisual                   |
                     | xvisualmode               |
    line             | interpreter               |
    patch            | interpreter               |
    surface          | interpreter               |
    text             | fontweight                | "demi" and "light"
    uibuttongroup    | fontweight                | "demi" and "light"
    uicontrol        | fontweight                | "demi" and "light"
    uipanel          | fontweight                | "demi" and "light"
    uitable          | fontweight                | "demi" and "light"

Old release news

• Octave 5.x
• Octave 4.x
• Octave 3.x
• Octave 2.x
• Octave 1.x