Prefer octave-cli if available (#236)

* Prefer octave-cli if available

* try system octave

* use sudo

.github/workflows/test.yml

@@ -19,21 +19,17 @@ jobs:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     strategy:
       matrix:
-        python-version: [3.7, 3.8, 3.9, '3.10']
+        python-version: [3.8, 3.9, '3.10', '3.11']
 
     steps:
     - uses: actions/checkout@v2
     - name: Base Setup
       uses: jupyterlab/maintainer-tools/.github/actions/base-setup@v1
-    - name: Setup conda ${{ matrix.python-version }}
-      uses: conda-incubator/setup-miniconda@v2
-      with:
-        auto-update-conda: true
-        miniforge-variant: Mambaforge
-        python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
+    - name: Install octave
+      run: |
+        sudo apt-get install -y octave
     - name: Install dependencies
       run: |
-        conda install -y octave
         make install
         make docker-build
     - name: Run test

README.rst

@@ -22,10 +22,10 @@ To install using conda::
     conda install octave_kernel
     conda install texinfo # For the inline documentation (shift-tab) to appear.
 
-We require the ``octave`` executable to run the kernel.
+We require the ``octave-cli`` or ``octave`` executable to run the kernel.
 Add that executable's directory to the ``PATH`` environment variable or create the
 environment variable ``OCTAVE_EXECUTABLE`` to point to the executable itself.
-Note that on Octave 5 on Windows, the executable is in ``"Octave-5.x.x.x\mingw64\bin"``.
+Note that on Octave 5+ on Windows, the executable is in ``"Octave-x.x.x.x\mingw64\bin"``.
 
 We automatically install a Jupyter kernelspec when installing the
 python package.  This location can be found using ``jupyter kernelspec list``.

octave_kernel/kernel.py

@@ -481,9 +481,11 @@ def _get_executable(self):
                 if 'octave' not in executable:
                     raise OSError('OCTAVE_EXECUTABLE does not point to an octave file, please see README')
         else:
-            executable = which('octave')
+            executable = which('octave-cli')
             if not executable:
-                raise OSError('octave not found, please see README')
+                executable = which('octave')
+                if not executable:
+                    raise OSError('octave not found, please see README')
         return executable.replace(os.path.sep, '/')
 
     def _cleanup(self):