Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
151 lines (95 loc) · 4.46 KB

FAQ.rst

File metadata and controls

151 lines (95 loc) · 4.46 KB
Raw

Frequency Asked Questions

Error: Unknown MATLAB location?

matlab_wrapper is unable to locate your MATLAB installation.

There are several ways to fix it:

  1. Include a path to the matlab executable in your PATH environment variable. You should be able to type matlab in your terminal prompt and start MATLAB. matlab_wrapper will try to locate the libraries based on the location of the matlab executable file. For example, put in your start-up files (.profile):

    export PATH=$PATH:/opt/MATLAB_R2014a/bin

  2. Set the environment variable MATLABROOT to the main MALTAB directory, which can be found in MATLAB by typing:

    matlabroot

    Next, type in the shell or your profile file:

    MATLABROOT=/opt/MATLAB/R2014b

  3. You can also set MATLAB's root directory in the MatlabSession constructor. The disadvantage is that your script will not be portable, e.g.:

    matlab = matlab_wrapper.MatlabSession(matlab_root="/opt/MATLAB/R2014b")

    See the documentation of MatlabSession for more details.

Error using save, Can't write file stdio?

If you see this error message, is probably due to bug in engGetVariable in certain versions of MATLAB (2014a, 8.3) on GNU/Linux and OS X. There is not much we can do about it. The workaround is to use only double arrays. They seem to be working properly.

Warning about missing /bin/csh?

On some systems MATLAB engine requires /bin/csh binary and you have to install it before using matlab_wrapper. For example, on Debian based distributions such as Ubuntu, you can do it with the following command as root:

apt-get install csh

Alternatively, use your favorite package management software. Additionally, tcsh package seem to install /bin/csh too.

Which platforms are supported?

GNU/Linux, Windows, OS X and various versions of MATLAB.

If you are using matlab_wrapper with MATLAB version or OS, which are not listed below, please let us know and we will update the table.

OS [1] MATLAB Bits [2] Status
GNU/Linux 2014b (8.4) 64 working (py.test OK)
GNU/Linux 2014a (8.3) 64 only double arrays working [3]
GNU/Linux 2013b (8.2) 64 working (py.test OK)
GNU/Linux 2013a (8.1) 64 working (py.test OK)
Windows 2014b (8.4) 32 reported working
Windows 2014a (8.3) 64 working (py.test OK)
OS X 2014a (8.3) 64 only double arrays working [3]
OS X 2013a (8.1) 64 working
[1]OSX version should work, but I'm unable to test it. If you have problems, let me know and we might figure it out.
[2]We have tested only 64-bit systems. 32-bit architectures are enabled, but not well tested.
[3](1, 2) Due to bug in engGetVariable: Error using save, Can't write file stdio.

Is there alternative software?

Yes. Here's a little compilation:

(last updated on April 18, 2015)

  • MATLAB Engine for Python
    • official package from Mathworks
    • supports new versions of Python (2.7, 3.3, and 3.4)
    • ships with MATLAB 2015a
  • pymatlab
    • pure Python, no compilation, using ctypes (good)
    • quite raw (ugly)
    • memory leaks (bad)
  • mlabwrap
    • cool interface, mlab.sin() (good)
    • needs compilation (bad)
    • not much development (bad)
  • mlab
    • similar interface to mlabwrap (good)
    • using raw pipes (hmm)
    • there is another very old package with the same name (ugly)
  • pymatbridge
    • actively developed (good)
    • client-server architecture with ZeroMQ and JSON, complex (ugly)
    • nice IPython Notebook support (good)

There is a nice overview of the available packages at StackOverflow.