[Pkg-octave-devel] Bug#876363: octave fetches network resources when network access disabled

[D Haley]

Package: octave
Version: 4.0.3-3
Severity: minor

Dear Maintainer,

I was having some network troubles recently, and I was using octave. A
short time after launching the program (octave --force, I was greeted
with "Octave's community news source seems to be unavailable.  For the
latest news, please check http://octave.org/community-news.html when
you have a connection to the web (link opens in an external browser)."

I was a little concerned at this message, as in the settings, the option
"Allow Octave to connect to the Octave web site to display current news
and information" is unchecked.

So it seems that this may not be being honoured? I can't see how octave
would know that my network was down (at the router level) without
performing a URL request. I admit I have not attempted to locate the
code responsible for this, so apologies if there is a mistake on my part.


Thanks.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 9.1
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 4.9.0-3-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_GB:en (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: sysvinit (via /sbin/init)

Versions of packages octave depends on:
ii  libamd2                          1:4.5.4-1
ii  libarpack2                       3.4.0-1+b1
ii  libasound2                       1.1.3-5
ii  libatlas3-base [liblapack.so.3]  3.10.3-1+b1
ii  libblas3 [libblas.so.3]          3.7.0-2
ii  libc6                            2.24-11+deb9u1
ii  libcamd2                         1:4.5.4-1
ii  libccolamd2                      1:4.5.4-1
ii  libcholmod3                      1:4.5.4-1
ii  libcolamd2                       1:4.5.4-1
ii  libcxsparse3                     1:4.5.4-1
ii  libfftw3-double3                 3.3.5-3
ii  libfftw3-single3                 3.3.5-3
ii  libfltk-gl1.3                    1.3.4-4
ii  libfltk1.3                       1.3.4-4
ii  libfontconfig1                   2.11.0-6.7+b1
ii  libfreetype6                     2.6.3-3.2
ii  libgcc1                          1:6.3.0-18
ii  libgl1-mesa-glx [libgl1]         13.0.6-1+b2
ii  libglpk40                        4.61-1
ii  libglu1-mesa [libglu1]           9.0.0-2.1
ii  libgomp1                         6.3.0-18
ii  liblapack3 [liblapack.so.3]      3.7.0-2
ii  liboctave3v5                     4.0.3-3
ii  libosmesa6                       13.0.6-1+b2
ii  libportaudio2                    19.6.0-1
ii  libqhull7                        2015.2-2
ii  libqrupdate1                     1.1.2-2
ii  libqscintilla2-12v5              2.9.3+dfsg-4
ii  libqt4-network                   4:4.8.7+dfsg-11
ii  libqt4-opengl                    4:4.8.7+dfsg-11
ii  libqtcore4                       4:4.8.7+dfsg-11
ii  libqtgui4                        4:4.8.7+dfsg-11
ii  libsndfile1                      1.0.27-3
ii  libstdc++6                       6.3.0-18
ii  libumfpack5                      1:4.5.4-1
ii  libx11-6                         2:1.6.4-3
ii  octave-common                    4.0.3-3
ii  texinfo                          6.3.0.dfsg.1-1+b2

Versions of packages octave recommends:
ii  default-jre-headless  2:1.8-58
ii  gnuplot-x11           5.0.5+dfsg1-6+deb9u1
ii  libatlas3-base        3.10.3-1+b1
ii  octave-info           4.0.3-3
ii  pstoedit              3.70-3+b2

Versions of packages octave suggests:
pn  octave-doc      <none>
pn  octave-htmldoc  <none>

-- no debconf information