Introduction

On this page we'll see how to use Octave on the tara cluster. Before proceeding, make sure you've read the how to run tutorial first. Octave is an open source mathematics package, similar to in functionality to MATLAB.

Example batch script

We'll write a simple Octave script that says "hello", and does some simple linear algebra operations.

[status, host] = system('hostname');
printf('Hello world from %s\n', host);

A = [1 3 5; 2 5 1; 2 3 8]
inv(A)
det(A)

Download: ../code/octave_hello/hello.m

We can launch it with a standard SLURM script

#!/bin/bash 
#SBATCH --job-name=hello_octave
#SBATCH --output=slurm.out
#SBATCH --error=slurm.err
#SBATCH --partition=develop

octave --silent --eval hello

Download: ../code/octave_hello/run.slurm

Now we launch the job

[araim1@tara-fe1 octave_hello]$ sbatch run.slurm
sbatch: Submitted batch job 2618
[araim1@tara-fe1 octave_hello]$ ls
hello.m  run.slurm  slurm.err  slurm.out
[araim1@tara-fe1 octave_hello]$ cat slurm.out
Hello world from n1

A =

   1   3   5
   2   5   1
   2   3   8

ans =

  -1.480000   0.360000   0.880000
   0.560000   0.080000  -0.360000
   0.160000  -0.120000   0.040000

ans = -25
[araim1@tara-fe1 octave_hello]$

Also note that hello.m can be run directly on the front end node, which is okay here because it's a small job

[araim1@tara-fe1 octave_hello]$ octave --silent --eval hello
Hello world from tara-fe1.rs.umbc.edu

A =

   1   3   5
   2   5   1
   2   3   8

ans =

  -1.480000   0.360000   0.880000
   0.560000   0.080000  -0.360000
   0.160000  -0.120000   0.040000

ans = -25

[araim1@tara-fe1 octave]$

Running Octave interactively

Octave can also be used interatively on the front end node, as in the following example

[araim1@tara-fe1 octave_hello]$ octave --silent
octave:1> [status, host] = system('hostname')
status = 0
host = tara-fe1.rs.umbc.edu

octave:2> printf('Hello world from %s\n', host);
Hello world from tara-fe1.rs.umbc.edu

octave:3> A = [1 3 5; 2 5 1; 2 3 8]
A =

   1   3   5
   2   5   1
   2   3   8

octave:4> inv(A)
ans =

  -1.480000   0.360000   0.880000
   0.560000   0.080000  -0.360000
   0.160000  -0.120000   0.040000

octave:5> det(A)
ans = -25
octave:6> quit
[araim1@tara-fe1 octave_hello]$

As always, this should only be used for smaller computations. Intensive programs should be submitted to the compute nodes.