[Pkg-octave-devel] Bug#744244: octave: missing function "dispatch" causes configure to fail

[Winfried Boxleitner]

Package: octave
Version: 3.8.1-1+b1
Severity: important
Tags: upstream

Dear Maintainer,
while upgrading (apt-get upgrade) octave-dataframe (0.9.1-1 => 1.0.0-1)
the following error happened:

>> ...
>> Processing triggers for octave (3.8.1-1+b1) ...
>> warning: function /usr/share/octave/packages/strings-1.1.0/strjoin.m shadows a core library function
>> warning: function /usr/share/octave/packages/specfun-1.1.0/expint.m shadows a core library function
>> warning: function /usr/share/octave/packages/specfun-1.1.0/erfcinv.m shadows a built-in function
>> warning: function /usr/share/octave/packages/specfun-1.1.0/ellipke.m shadows a core library function
>> warning: function /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/octave/packages/specfun-1.1.0/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-api-v49+/ellipj.oct shadows a built-in function
>> warning: dx does not seem to be present some functionalities will be disabled
>> error: 'dispatch' undefined near line 2 column 1
>> error: called from:
>> error:   /usr/share/octave/packages/fixed-0.7.10/PKG_ADD at line 2, column 1
>> error: addpath: all arguments must be character strings
>> .... line repeated 27 times
>> error:   /usr/share/octave/3.8.1/m/pkg/private/load_packages_and_dependencies.m at line 47, column 5
>> error:   /usr/share/octave/3.8.1/m/pkg/private/load_packages.m at line 60, column 3
>> error:   /usr/share/octave/3.8.1/m/pkg/pkg.m at line 412, column 7
>> error:   /usr/share/octave/3.8.1/m/startup/octaverc at line 22, column 1
>> dpkg: error processing package octave (--unpack):
>>  subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
>> Errors were encountered while processing:
>>  octave
>> ...

in the changelog for liboctave2 one finds:

>> 2014-03-01  Rik  <rik at octave.org>
>>
>>         doc: Remove "Legacy Dispatch" from Function Precedence section.
>>
>>         * func.txi: Remove "Legacy Dispatch" from Function Precedence section.
>>         The dispatch function was removed and doesn't exist in 3.8.
>>         .....

so it seems that "dispatch" was removed deliberately, however the
install/upgrade process depends on it.


to workaround this and to finally finish the upgrade I searched
for "dispatch.oct" in an older deb-package and copied it into:
/usr/lib/octave/3.2.4/site/oct/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/dispatch.oct
then I tried 

>> aptitude reinstall octave
>> The following packages will be REINSTALLED:
>> octave  
>> Preparing to unpack .../octave_3.8.1-1+b1_amd64.deb ...
>> Unpacking octave (3.8.1-1+b1) over (3.8.1-1+b1) ...
>> Processing triggers for man-db (2.6.6-1) ...
>> Processing triggers for menu (2.1.46) ...
>> Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.22-1) ...
>> Processing triggers for mime-support (3.54) ...
>> Setting up octave (3.8.1-1+b1) ...
>> ...

the install finished successfully, however other error messages appear whenever I try 
to start octave, since I introduced library inconsistencies by using an ancient version
of "dispatch.oct"




-- System Information:
Debian Release: jessie/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (500, 'testing-proposed-updates'), (500, 'proposed-updates'), (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'stable'), (500, 'oldstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 3.13-1-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) (ignored: LC_ALL set to en_US.UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages octave depends on:
ii  default-jre-headless             2:1.7-51
ii  libamd2.3.1                      1:4.2.1-3
ii  libarpack2                       3.1.5-2
ii  libatlas3-base [liblapack.so.3]  3.10.1-4
ii  libblas3 [libblas.so.3]          1.2.20110419-7
ii  libc6                            2.18-4
ii  libcamd2.3.1                     1:4.2.1-3
ii  libccolamd2.8.0                  1:4.2.1-3
ii  libcholmod2.1.2                  1:4.2.1-3
ii  libcolamd2.8.0                   1:4.2.1-3
ii  libcxsparse3.1.2                 1:4.2.1-3
ii  libfftw3-double3                 3.3.3-7
ii  libfftw3-single3                 3.3.3-7
ii  libfltk-gl1.3                    1.3.2-4
ii  libfltk1.3                       1.3.2-4
ii  libfontconfig1                   2.11.0-5
ii  libfreetype6                     2.5.2-1
ii  libgcc1                          1:4.8.2-16
ii  libgl1-mesa-glx [libgl1]         10.1.0-5
ii  libglpk36                        4.54-1
ii  libglu1-mesa [libglu1]           9.0.0-2
ii  libgomp1                         4.8.2-16
ii  libgraphicsmagick++3             1.3.18-1
ii  libgraphicsmagick3               1.3.18-1
ii  liblapack3 [liblapack.so.3]      3.5.0-2
ii  liboctave2                       3.8.1-1+b1
ii  libopenblas-base [libblas.so.3]  0.2.8-6
ii  libqhull6                        2012.1-4
ii  libqrupdate1                     1.1.2-1
ii  libqscintilla2-11                2.8.1-1
ii  libqt4-network                   4:4.8.5+git242-g0315971+dfsg-2
ii  libqtcore4                       4:4.8.5+git242-g0315971+dfsg-2
ii  libqtgui4                        4:4.8.5+git242-g0315971+dfsg-2
ii  libstdc++6                       4.8.2-16
ii  libumfpack5.6.2                  1:4.2.1-3
ii  libx11-6                         2:1.6.2-1
ii  octave-common                    3.8.1-1
ii  texinfo                          5.2.0.dfsg.1-2

Versions of packages octave recommends:
ii  gnuplot-x11       4.6.5-1
ii  libatlas3-base    3.10.1-4
ii  libopenblas-base  0.2.8-6
ii  pstoedit          3.62-1

Versions of packages octave suggests:
ii  octave-doc                          3.8.1-1
ii  octave-htmldoc                      3.8.1-1
ii  octave-info                         3.8.1-1
ii  octave3.2-doc [octave-doc]          3.2.4-12
ii  octave3.2-htmldoc [octave-htmldoc]  3.2.4-12

-- no debconf information