MATLAB®

Compiling and Linking MAT-File Programs

Compiling and Linking on UNIX^® Operating Systems

At run-time, you must tell the UNIX^®[1] operating system where the API shared libraries reside. These sections provide the necessary UNIX commands, depending on your shell and system architecture.

Setting Run-Time Library Path

Set the library path as follows for the C and Bourne shells. Replace the terms envvar and pathspec with the appropriate values from the table below.

In the C shell, set the library path using the command:

setenv envvar pathspec

In the Bourne shell, use:

envvar = pathspec:envvar
export envvar

For example, for the C shell on a Solaris system use:

setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH 
matlabroot/bin/sol64:matlabroot/sys/os/sol64

and for the Bourne shell:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=matlabroot/bin/sol64:matlabroot/sys/os/sol64:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH 

You can place these commands in a startup script such as ~/.cshrc for C shell or ~/.profile for Bourne shell.

Using the Options File

The MATLAB^® options file, matopts.sh, lets you use the mex script to easily compile and link MAT-file applications. For example, to compile and link the matcreat.c example, first copy the file using the command:

matlabroot/extern/examples/eng_mat/matcreat.c

to a writable directory, then use the following command to build it:

mex -f matlabroot/bin/matopts.sh matcreat.c

If you need to modify the options file for your particular compiler or platform, use the -v switch to view the current compiler and linker settings and then make the appropriate changes in a local copy of the matopts.sh file.

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Compiling and Linking on Windows^® Operating Systems

To compile and link Fortran or C MAT-file programs, use the mex script with a MAT options file. The MAT options files reside in matlabroot\bin\win32\mexopts or matlabroot\bin\win64\mexopts and are named *engmatopts.bat, where * represents the compiler type and version.

For example, to compile and link the stand alone MAT application matcreat.c using the Microsoft^® Visual C++^® Version 7.1 compiler on a Microsoft^® Windows^® operating system, first copy the file:

matlabroot\extern\examples\eng_mat\matcreat.c

to a writable directory, and then use the following command to build it:

mex -f matlabroot\bin\win32\mexopts\msvc71engmatopts.bat matcreat.c

If you need to modify the options file for your particular compiler, use the -v switch to view the current compiler and linker settings and then make the appropriate changes in a local copy of the options file.

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Required Files from Third-Party Sources

MATLAB requires the following data and library files for building any MAT-file application. You must also distribute these files along with any MAT-file application that you deploy to another system.

Third-Party Data Files

When building a MAT-file application on your system or deploying a MAT-file application to some other system, make sure that the appropriate Unicode^® data file is installed in the matlabroot/bin/$ARCH directory. MATLAB uses this file to support Unicode encoding.

For systems that order bytes in a big-endian manner, use icudt32b.dat.

For systems that order bytes in a little-endian manner, use icudt32l.dat.

Third-Party Libraries

When building a MAT-file application on your system or deploying a MAT-file application to some other system, make sure to install the appropriate libraries in the matlabroot/bin/$ARCH directory:

Library File Names by Operating System

In addition to these libraries, you must also have all third-party library files that libmat depends on. MATLAB uses these additional libraries to support Unicode character encoding and data compression in MAT-files. These library files must reside in the same directory as libmx.

You can determine what most of these libraries are using the platform-specific methods described below.

Linux^® or Solaris™ Operating System

Type the following command:

ldd -d libmat.so

Macintosh^® Operating System

Type the following command:

otool -L libmat.dylib

Windows^® Operating System

Download the Dependency Walker utility from the following Web site:

http://www.dependencywalker.com/

and then drag and drop the file matlabroot/bin/win32/libmat.dll or matlabroot/bin/win64/libmat.dll into Depends window.

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Working Directly with Unicode^® Encoding

If you need to manipulate Unicode text directly in your application, the latest version of International Components for Unicode (ICU) is freely available online from the IBM^® Corporation Web site at:

http://icu.sourceforge.net/download

^[1] UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries.

^[a] Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

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Examples of MAT-Files

MATLAB® Interface to Generic DLLs