Prerequisites: Install Jupyter Notebook, and Octave. It is recommended that you also install gnuplot support in Octave for inline plotting.

To install:

pip install octave_kernel
python -m octave_kernel.install

To use it, run one of:

ipython notebook
# In the notebook interface, select Octave from the 'New' menu
ipython qtconsole --kernel octave
ipython console --kernel octave

This is based on MetaKernel, which means it features a standard set of magics.

A sample notebook is available online.

You can specify the path to your Octave executable by creating an OCTAVE_EXECUTABLE environment variable.

You can also specify the command line options to Octave by creating an OCTAVE_CLI_OPTIONS` environment variable. The will be appended to the default opions of--interactive --quiet --no-init-file`. Note that the init file is explicitly called after the kernel has set `more off to prevent a lockup when the pager is invoked in ~/.octaverc.