Download the sources

You can obtain the Mastrave CVS repository by checking it out via anonymous CVS.  This way, you can obtain the most updated development version of Mastrave.  However you are warned: despite updates of the Mastrave project are usually conservative and tested before their public release, still the most recent snapshot might result in occasional unstable behaviors or unexpected results (in case you discover something doubtful, please help us to continuosly improve Mastrave).  On the other hand, the current snapshot is the version which is under active development and on which every future improvement and extension will be based: so this is the best place to master if you wish to influence future versions.  If you don't know how to use CVS, on Savannah there is some useful documentation about it.  However, the following couple of commands could typically be the only one you need for installing and periodically updating your local version of Mastrave to the current development version.  The software repository can be checked out (i.e. you can get for the first time on your machine the current development version of Mastrave) by using the command:

  cd </desired/mastrave/path>
  url='cvs.savannah.nongnu.org:/sources'
  cvs -z3 -d":pserver:anonymous@$url/mastrave" co mastrave

After the first download on your machine has been done, updating from time to time the Mastrave project to the newest available development-version is straightforward and just requires invoking the update command of CVS:

  cd </desired/mastrave/path>
  url='cvs.savannah.nongnu.org:/sources'
  cvs -z3 -d":pserver:anonymous@$url/mastrave" update mastrave

Download one of the alpha releases

You can also obtain one of the alpha releases of Mastrave, which on average can be quite out-of-date but are stable (including their limitations) and you could try one of them for a quick overview of the main features and general philosophy.

You can check and download the available alpha releases at:

  http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/mastrave/

Plain installation

This section describes how to install Mastrave alpha releases.  If you used CVS to obtain the current Mastrave development versions, the following steps are not required: you just could want to tell GNU Octave where to find Mastrave, in which case the installation path to be used is the one you chosen (in the previous example, </desired/mastrave/path>).

Mastrave releases installation under GNU/Linux follows the classic GNU Build System.  This means that in the easiest (i.e. non customized) scenario, Mastrave can be installed by typing in the shell as super-user:

  ./configure && make && su -c 'make install'

or (depending whether "su" or "sudo" command is the default for your GNU/Linux distribution)

  ./configure && make && sudo make install

within the root package directory.  As in most cases with the GNU Built System, only the "make install" command needs super-user privileges (to perform the standard multi-user installation) and even this one can be executed without super-user privileges provided that you only intend to locally install Mastrave.

If you need a local (unprivileged) installation, the correct set of commands is:

  ./configure --prefix '/home/<user name>/local'
  make && make install

Integration with GNU Octave

To use Mastrave within GNU Octave, all you need is to tell GNU Octave where Mastrave is located.  This can be done within a session of the GNU Octave intepreter by adding the installation path of Mastrave with "addpath".

You can easily find the installation path within the following list of paths (usually it shoud be in the /usr directory):

   for i in $( locate -r 'mastrave/Ab' ); do dirname "$i"; done

If you desire a permanent integration, you can add the installation path of Mastrave in one of the startup files of GNU Octave (usually the "octaverc" file).  The following commands could help you:

   ( cat <<EOF
   addpath( '</path/to/>mastrave' );
   disp( 'Mastrave enabled' );
   EOF
   ) >> </path/to/>octaverc