CODEWITHSUNDEEP
octave
Robert H
Robert H

Reputation: 1663

how to obtain list of functions of a package that is installed in octave?

after one installs a package, what is the command to find what functions are in that package?

for example, I have the control package installed. But how find help on this package such as what functions it includes and such, like with Matlab?

does one have to go to the http://octave.sourceforge.net/ web site each time to find out? Can one find this information from inside octave?

I find Matlab help much better and easier to use than octave.

Upvotes: 4

Views: 8836

Answers (3)

Georg W.
Georg W.

Reputation: 1356

Octave function displaying package help

I wrote a short octave function, that solves your problem: It creates a dialogue box to display all functions in a package. After selecting one function it will display it's the help text in a message box. Just save the following octave function to a file named pkghelp.m and run it by typing
pkghelp packagename.

Example

The following will display the function overview for package 'io':
pkghelp io

Source Code

% Script to display functions and help on functions for a package
function pkghelp(pkgname)

  % Get functions for this package
   des = pkg('describe','-verbose',pkgname);
   % Get first element
   des = des{1};

   if isempty(des)
     error('pkghelp:unknownPackage','Package "%s" was not found!',pkgname);
   endif
   
   % Create a dialog with functions
   pname = des.name;
   pvers = des.version;
   pdesc = des.description;
   
   % Number of categories
   ncat = numel(des.provides);
   list = cell(1,1);
   cnt=1;
   for i=1:ncat
     % Store category name
     list(cnt) = ['--(* ',des.provides{i}.category,' *)--'];
     % Number of functions
     nfunc = numel(des.provides{i}.functions);
     % Append functions in category
     list(cnt+1:cnt+nfunc) = des.provides{i}.functions(:);
     % Update counter
     cnt = cnt+1+nfunc;
   endfor

  ok=1;
  while ok==1  
    % Create dialog
    [sel, ok] = listdlg ('ListString', list,...
                     'SelectionMode', 'Single', ...
                     'ListSize',[300,600],...
                     'Name',pname,...
                     'PromptString','List of available functions');

    
    if (ok==1)
     % Selected function name
     selfun = list{sel};
     % Not a category?
     if selfun(1) ~= '-'
       % assure that package is loaded for help
       pkg('load',pkgname);
       % Get help text for selected function
       doc = help(selfun);
       % Open dialog with help text display
       msgbox(doc,[pname,'/',selfun],'help');
     endif
    endif
  endwhile
                     
endfunction

Upvotes: 2

carandraug
carandraug

Reputation: 13091

Use pkg describe -verbose control to get all info from the control package.

Upvotes: 6

s-m-e
s-m-e

Reputation: 3729

Under Linux, from either within Octave or Bash (works equally), check out the package folders: 

me@computer:/usr/share/octave/packages> ls -la
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 22. Okt 2011  .
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 22. Okt 2011  ..
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 22. Okt 2011  openmpi_ext-1.0.1

Your "control" package should appear here, as a folder. Enter the folder(s) and check out the details ... 

me@computer:/usr/share/octave/packages> cd openmpi_ext-1.0.1/
me@computer:/usr/share/octave/packages/openmpi_ext-1.0.1> ls -la
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 22. Okt 2011  .                                                                                                                                                  
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 22. Okt 2011  ..                                                                                                                                                 
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  346 24. Nov 2010  allnodes                                                                                                                                           
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 22. Okt 2011  doc                                                                                                                                                
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3694 24. Nov 2010  doc-cache                                                                                                                                          
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  967 24. Nov 2010  hello2dimmat.m                                                                                                                                     
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1706 24. Nov 2010  hellocell.m                                                                                                                                        
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1359 24. Nov 2010  hellosparsemat.m                                                                                                                                   
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1711 24. Nov 2010  hellostruct.m                                                                                                                                      
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1726 24. Nov 2010  helloworld.m                                                                                                                                       
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1506 24. Nov 2010  mc_example.m                                                                                                                                       
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4721 24. Nov 2010  montecarlo.m                                                                                                                                       
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 22. Okt 2011  packinfo                                                                                                                                           
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3535 24. Nov 2010  Pi.m

Upvotes: 1

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