If you need help using Octave, you have many options, from reading the Octave manual, asking for help on the mailing lists, chatting online with other Octave users, or paying for commercial support.

The Octave community is a loosely organized association of volunteers. Your interactions with the community will be better if you have the right expectations about the support options available to you.

Documentation

There is an Online Manual and a PDF Version of the comprehensive ~800 page manual. This full documentation of Octave is generated directly from the Texinfo source files that are distributed along with every copy of the Octave source code. The complete text of the manual is also available at the Octave prompt using the doc command.

A printed version of the Octave manual may be ordered from Network Theory, Ltd.. Any money raised from the sale of this book will support the development of free software. For each copy sold $1 will be donated to the GNU Octave Development Fund.

Octave Wiki and FAQ

The Octave Wiki is a great place to look for information about things that are not covered in the manual, or other transient topics (Google Summer of Code, Octave Conferences, etc.).

Additionally, the wiki contains a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Contacting the user community

• Mailing List: If your question isn’t answered in the FAQ, the manual, or the Wiki, the help@octave.org mailing list is a good resource.

  You can also subscribe to help@octave.org or try to search in the mailing list archive for an answer:

  all dates past 24 hours past week past month past 3 months past 6 months past year
  Please do not send any bug reports to the help@octave.org mailing list. Most Octave users do not want to receive bug reports.

• IRC Chat: Too impatient for email? You can find Octave developers and users on the #octave channel at irc.freenode.net. The atmosphere is relaxed and chat isn’t restricted to matters strictly pertaining to Octave.