Dynare for Octave

Porting of Dynare to Octave is under progress. Development is done using Octave versions 3.0.0 and 3.0.1.

About Octave

Octave is a free clone of Matlab, running under Linux, Windows and MacOS.

It normally runs in a command window, and displays graphics in separate windows (using Gnuplot).

Some ressources:

Installing Dynare for Octave

Windows

The recommended Octave distribution is the [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=2888&package_id=40078 precompiled binaries from Octave Forge]. Pick the octave-3.0.1-vs2008-setup.exe installer. Choose GNUplot graphical backend (instead of JHandles) during installation. Also note that this distribution contains a nice text editor, which you can invoke with edit as you would under Matlab.

Warning: this binary distribution has a bug which makes Octave crash everytime one types clear all (and therefore everytime one runs Dynare!). A simple workaround is to type the following command the first time you run Octave:

pkg rebuild -noauto ftp ann database

Then download Dynare from [http:///www.dynare.org/windows] (pick the most recent package). The archive contains DLLs compiled for Octave.

Note: Cygwin now contains an Octave 3.0 package. However this package is slower than the other one, and is not recommended for the moment. If you really want to use it, you will have to recompile the MEX files (see BuildingDlls).

GNU/Linux

For Debian "Lenny" or Ubuntu "Hardy Heron", see InstallOnDebianOrUbuntu.

For other distributions, you should begin by installing the relevant package for Octave 3.0.

Then pickup Dynare sources via the daily snapshot, or via SVN with:

svn checkout http://www.cepremap.cnrs.fr/svn/dynare_v4

Compile the preprocessor (see BuildingPreprocessor), then the dynamic libaries (see BuildingDlls).

Running Dynare for Octave

First, you should run Octave.

Under Linux, at the prompt, just type:

octave

Under Windows, you should have a shortcut already installed in your Start menu.

It is also possible to run [http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/doc/interpreter/Emacs.html Octave under Emacs].

Then, from Octave, add the path to Dynare with the addpath command, as you would under Matlab:

addpath REPLACE_WITH_INSTALL_PATH/matlab

It is possible to autoexecute this command at each Octave start by adding it to the .octaverc startup file (under Linux, this file should be put in the home directory; under Windows, it should be put at the root of the user home under Documents and Settings).

Unless you tell it to do otherwise, Octave won't accept the short syntax when typing dynare command. In other words, to run Dynare on ramst.mod, you need to type:

dynare('ramst')

rather than:

dynare ramst

However, you can force Octave to accept the short syntax by typing the following (or by adding it to your .octaverc):

mark_as_command dynare

Current status of development

Main changes between Matlab and Octave versions of Dynare