Ubuntu
octave package

Why octave depends on jre?

Asked by Giuseppe Fierro

I've installed the octave package and the package also install the default jre, but I've already installed oracle java 8.
So why the octave package has this jre dependences?

Question information

Language:
English Edit question
Status:
Solved
For:
Ubuntu octave Edit question
Assignee:
No assignee Edit question
Solved by:
Mike Miller
Solved:
Last query:
Last reply:
Revision history for this message
Best Mike Miller (mtmiller) said : 		#1

Octave 3.8 now has built-in support for interacting with Java classes and data types. This used to be part of the octave-java add-on package, but is now part of Octave itself. This is the reason it depends on a Java runtime.

The reason it depends on the default-jre specifically is because the current implementation does not allow the user to change the JRE used at runtime. The particular Java that Octave will load and use is compiled in when Octave is built. That being the case currently, the only reasonable choice to make is to compile Octave so that it will use the default-jre package, which is currently OpenJDK 7 in Ubuntu 14.04.

There is an upstream bug report about adding the ability to change the JRE that Octave uses at runtime (by setting JAVA_HOME for example), but that is not yet possible in Octave. See https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?40111.

Revision history for this message
Giuseppe Fierro (gspe) said : 		#2

Thanks Mike Miller, that solved my question.