2.1.2 Startup Files
When Octave starts, it looks for commands to execute from the following
files:
- octave-home
/share/octave/site/m/startup/octaverc
- Where octave-home is the directory in which all of Octave is
installed (the default is /usr). This file is
provided so that changes to the default Octave environment can be made
globally for all users at your site for all versions of Octave you have
installed. Some care should be taken when making changes to this file,
since all users of Octave at your site will be affected.
- octave-home
/share/octave/
version/m/startup/octaverc
- Where octave-home is the directory in which all of Octave is
installed (the default is /usr), and version
is the version number of Octave. This file is provided so that changes
to the default Octave environment can be made globally for all users for
a particular version of Octave. Some care should be taken when making
changes to this file, since all users of Octave at your site will be
affected.
~/.octaverc
- This file is normally used to make personal changes to the default
Octave environment.
.octaverc
- This file can be used to make changes to the default Octave environment
for a particular project. Octave searches for this file in the current
directory after it reads ~/.octaverc. Any use of the
cd
command in the ~/.octaverc file will affect the directory that
Octave searches for the file .octaverc.
If you start Octave in your home directory, commands from from the file
~/.octaverc will only be executed once.
A message will be displayed as each of the startup files is read if you
invoke Octave with the --verbose
option but without the
--silent
option.
Startup files may contain any valid Octave commands, including function
definitions.