Question

I am trying to write an Octave script that I can run as an executable.

I am using octave version 3.6.0. I am running the following script downloaded form here:

#!/usr/local/bin/octave -qf

# An example Octave script 

len = input( "What size array do you wish to use for the evaluation: " );

clear a; 
tic(); 
for i=1:len
    a(i) = i; 
endfor 
time1 = toc();

a = [1]; 
tic(); 
for i=2:len 
    a = [a i]; 
endfor
time2 = toc();

a=zeros( len, 1 ); 
tic(); 
for i=1:len 
    a(i) = i; 
endfor
time3 = toc();

printf( "The time taken for method 1 was %.4f seconds\n", time1 );
printf( "The time taken for method 2 was %.4f seconds\n", time2 );
printf( "The time taken for method 3 was %.4f seconds\n", time3 );

However when I run the script on the command line, I get the following error:

‘usr/local/bin/octave: invalid option — ‘

However, when I type the same command at the command line:

/usr/local/bin/octave -qf

I get the octave command prompt. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

I assume you’re on some sort of Unix/Linux system. Is the file in “DOS” format, with DOS-style line endings? This could cause problems with how the command is interpreted.