octave-cli(1)               General Commands Manual              octave-cli(1)

NAME
       octave-cli - A high-level interactive programming language for
       numerical computations

SYNOPSIS
       octave-cli [option]... [FILE]

DESCRIPTION
       Octave is a high-level interactive scientific programming language.  It
       has a powerful mathematics-oriented syntax for solving problems
       numerically, as well as built-in 2-D/3-D plotting and visualization
       tools.  Programs may also be run in batch mode to process data without
       interaction.  octave-cli has been compiled without any GUI support (Qt)
       which makes it smaller than the default octave executable; the
       integrated development environment is restricted to the command-line
       interface (CLI).

OPTIONS
       A list of the most useful command-line options for octave-cli is
       available by running the following command from the shell.

       octave-cli --help

DOCUMENTATION
       The primary documentation for Octave is written using Texinfo, the GNU
       documentation system, which allows the same source files to produce
       both online and printed versions of the manual.

       You can read the built-in copy of the Octave documentation by issuing
       the following command from within octave-cli.

           octave:1> doc

       The Info files may also be read with a stand-alone program such as info
       or xinfo.  HTML, Postscript, or PDF versions of the documentation are
       installed on many systems as well.  The latest version of the
       documentation is available at <https://docs.octave.org/latest>.

BUGS
       The Octave project maintains a bug tracker at <https://
       bugs.octave.org>.

       Before submitting a new item please read the instructions at <https://
       www.octave.org/bugs.html> on how to submit a useful report.

FILES
       Upon startup Octave looks for four initialization files.  Each file may
       contain any number of valid Octave commands.

       octave-home/share/octave/site/m/startup/octaverc
              Site-wide initialization file which changes options for all
              users.  octave-home is the directory where Octave was installed
              such as /usr/local.

       octave-home/share/octave/version/m/startup/octaverc
              Site-wide initialization file for Octave version version.

       ~/.octaverc
              User's personal initialization file.

       .octaverc
              Project-specific initialization file located in the current
              directory.

INTERNET RESOURCES
       Home page: <https://octave.org>
       Documentation: <https://docs.octave.org/latest>
       Support resources: <https://octave.org/support>
       Packages: <https://packages.octave.org>
       Online forum: <https://octave.discourse.group>

AUTHOR
       John W. Eaton and many others.  The list of contributors to the Octave
       project may be shown from within octave-cli by executing "doc
       Acknowledgements".  The list is also available online at <https://
       docs.octave.org/latest/Acknowledgements.html>.

SEE ALSO

GNU Octave                        April 2026                     octave-cli(1)