Plotting with Octave after most recent MAC OSX update - macos

Question

Hi I just recently downloaded the most recent snow leopard update. Then I tried to plot something using Octave which has been installed on my computer for months (and plotting has worked all that time) Even since I installed the update, and I try to plot using octave I get the following error:
dyld: Library not loaded: /usr/X11/lib/libfreetype.6.dylib
Referenced from: /usr/X11R6/lib/libfontconfig.1.dylib
Reason: Incompatible library version: libfontconfig.1.dylib requires version 13.0.0 or later, but libfreetype.6.dylib provides version 10.0.0
dyld: Library not loaded: /usr/X11/lib/libfreetype.6.dylib
Referenced from: /usr/X11R6/lib/libfontconfig.1.dylib
Reason: Incompatible library version: libfontconfig.1.dylib requires version 13.0.0 or later, but libfreetype.6.dylib provides version 10.0.0
/Applications/Gnuplot.app/Contents/Resources/bin/gnuplot: line 71: 865 Trace/BPT trap GNUTERM="${GNUTERM}" GNUPLOT_HOME="${GNUPLOT_HOME}" PATH="${PATH}" DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH="${DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH}" HOME="${HOME}" GNUHELP="${GNUHELP}" DYLD_FRAMEWORK_PATH="${DYLD_FRAMEWORK_PATH}" GNUPLOT_PS_DIR="${GNUPLOT_PS_DIR}" DISPLAY="${DISPLAY}" GNUPLOT_DRIVER_DIR="${GNUPLOT_DRIVER_DIR}" "${ROOT}/bin/gnuplot-4.2.6" "$#"
/Applications/Gnuplot.app/Contents/Resources/bin/gnuplot: line 71: 871 Trace/BPT trap GNUTERM="${GNUTERM}" GNUPLOT_HOME="${GNUPLOT_HOME}" PATH="${PATH}" DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH="${DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH}" HOME="${HOME}" GNUHELP="${GNUHELP}" DYLD_FRAMEWORK_PATH="${DYLD_FRAMEWORK_PATH}" GNUPLOT_PS_DIR="${GNUPLOT_PS_DIR}" DISPLAY="${DISPLAY}" GNUPLOT_DRIVER_DIR="${GNUPLOT_DRIVER_DIR}" "${ROOT}/bin/gnuplot-4.2.6" "$#"
error: you must have gnuplot installed to display graphics; if you have gnuplot installed in a non-standard location, see the 'gnuplot_binary' function
I'm really not sure what to do. I'm way out of my league here.

Answer 1

The "note for MacOSX users" is no longer on the Octave homepage, and the workaround described in Marco's post didn't work for me either, but this did:
Open /Applications/Gnuplot.app/Contents/Resources/bin/gnuplot in a text
editor. Use the editor search-and-replace feature to replace
"DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH" with "DYLD_FALLBACK_LIBRARY_PATH". There are four
instances that need to be replaced.
This is from the readme for the Octave MacOSX Binary. Note that it says it's for Lion users, but I'm running 10.6.8 and it worked for me.

Answer 2

I've recently build Octave and GNUplot on Lion using homebrew. Seems to work well. Here are some notes
Install Xcode from AppStore and HomeBrew (see Link)
Run 'brew install octave" and wait until graphicsmagick fails to compile
Run the command "brew install --use-clang --HEAD graphicsmagick". You might be asked to install Mercurial, just follow the instructions. You may also be asked to install fortran, so "brew install gfortran"
Run the command "brew install octave" again
Install Aquaterm
Now run "brew install gnuplot"
You now have the latest Octave installed. Just type octave from the terminal
To test the install run the following commands at the Octave command prompt
setenv("GNUTERM", "x11");
x = linspace(-10, 10, 100);
y = sin(x);
plot(x,y);

Answer 3

See the note for users of Mac OS X 10.6 on http://octave.sourceforge.net/. The changes solve the problem also in 10.5.8.

Answer 4

We updated freetype in OSX 10.6.5 and fontconfig, which links against freetype, wants this newer version. Gnuplot is failing to load because their developers are setting DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH which is forcing our libfontconfig to try using their libfreetype, which it cant.
This is a bug in Gnuplot.app ... developers should NEVER be setting DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH in shipping products!

Answer 5

I had the same problem and took me a while to find the "note for users of Mac OS X 10.6". I copy them here:
NOTES FOR SNOW LEOPARD USERS
1 - mkoctfile
Since OSX 10.6 the Apple shipped version of gcc builds by default 64bit binaries
As the libraries included with Octave.app version 3.2.3 are 32bit, you need to apply
the following patch in order for mkoctfile to work:
1.1) open the folder /Applications in the finder
1.2) right-click on Octave.app and select "show package contents"
1.3) navigate to /Applications/Octave.app/Contents/Resources/bin
1.4) right-click on the file "mkoctfile" and select "Open with -> Other ... -> TextEdit.app"
1.5) right after the line:
# along with this program; If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
add the lines
CFLAGS="-m32 ${CFLAGS}"
FFLAGS="-m32 ${FFLAGS}"
CPPFLAGS="-m32 ${CPPFLAGS}"
CXXFLAGS="-m32 ${CXXFLAGS}"
LDFLAGS="-m32 ${LDFLAGS}"
and save.
2 - Gnuplot.app
An update to system libraries introduced with OSX 10.6.5 has broken the functionality
of the Gnuplot.app included with the Octave.app distribution, in order to use Gnuplot.app
on OSX 10.6.5 and later, you can use the fix described below:
2.1) open the folder /Applications in the finder
2.2) right-click on Gnuplot.app and select "show package contents"
2.3) navigate to /Applications/Gnuplot.app/Contents/Resources/bin
2.4) right-click on the file "gnuplot" and select "Open with -> Other ... -> TextEdit.app"
2.5) change the line:
DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH="${ROOT}/lib:${DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH}"
to
DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH="${ROOT}/lib"
and save.
NOTES FOR LEOPARD USERS
An update to system libraries introduced with OSX 10.5.8 has broken the functionality
of the Gnuplot.app included with the Octave.app distribution, in order to use Gnuplot.app
on OSX 10.5.8 and later, you can use the same fix described above for OSX 10.6.5.

Answer 6

I tried the above and it did not help. The source of the problem seems to be the version of gnuplot that comes with the Octave.app install.
I installed gnuplot directly with 'brew' and then I removed gnuplot from my Applications folder. Once that change was made, Octave was able to find the newer version of gnuplot that was compiled with the correct dependencies.

Answer 7

If you don't mind using MacPorts, you can install octave by the following command. And it will be a 64-bit version.
sudo port install octave-devel

Answer 8

I just want to share my experience regarding this issue.
I had similar problem today when I tried to use Octave/Gnuplot in Mac OS X (10.7.5, Lion) and none of the solutions above worked for me.
However I found another solution that did work, which is described in https://github.com/jyr/MNPP/issues/28. Basically, I did the following:
sudo cp /usr/X11/lib/libfreetype.* /Applications/Gnuplot.app/Contents/Resources/lib

Answer 9

Mountain Lions can also install Octave 3.4.0 with the dmg and throw in the older 4.2 gnuplot instead from the Maxima dmg. Easiest, but not the most recent version. (A classmate's idea which worked.)

Answer 10

Replacing the 4 instances of "DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH" with "DYLD_FALLBACK_LIBRARY_PATH" did not work for me on Mac OS X 10.9.
However, the second option given here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/octave/files/Octave%20MacOSX%20Binary/2011-04-21%20binary%20of%20Octave%203.4.0/
did work. i.e. using Gnuplot-4.2.6 that is bundled with Maxima DMG. Link below. http://sourceforge.net/projects/maxima/files/Maxima-MacOS/5.26.0-MacOSX/
I just copied Gnuplot.app into /Applications.