How to link during Matlab's MEX compilation

Question

I've written a program of the following form:

#include "stuff_I_need.h"

int main(){

construct_array(); // uses OpenMP pragma's
print_array();

return(0);


}

that compiles, links, and runs correctly with the following command:

`gcc44 -I/home/matteson/sundials/include/ main.c -lm -L/home/matteson/sundials/lib -lsundials_cvode -lsundials_nvecserial -fopenmp -o /home/matteson/MPI_test/CVODE_test/main_test`

"gcc44" is simply gcc version 4.4 and is named like this because it's being compiled on a cluster that maintains several versions of gcc. The libraries sundials_cvode and sundials_nvecserial are used in the solving of several differential equations during the construction of the array.

Now when I want to transfer over to Matlab and try to compile the mex file of the form:

#include "stuff_I_need.h"

void mexFunction(int nlhs,mxArray* plhs[], int nrhs, const mxArray* prhs[]){

construct_array(); // uses OpenMP pragma's
print_array();

}

and try to compile with the following command in Matlab:

>> mex -v CC="gcc44" CFLAGS="\$CFLAGS -I/home/matteson/sundials/include/ -fopenmp" LDFLAGS="\$LDFLAGS -fopenmp -L/home/matteson/sundials/lib -lsundials_cvode -lsundials_nvecserial" mex_cvode.c

I get the following messages culminating in a link error:

    -> mexopts.sh sourced from directory (DIR = $HOME/.matlab/$REL_VERSION)
   FILE = /home/matteson/.matlab/R2010b/mexopts.sh
----------------------------------------------------------------
->    MATLAB                = /misc/linux/64/opt/pkg/matlab/R2010b
->    CC                    = gcc44
->    CC flags:
         CFLAGS             = -ansi -D_GNU_SOURCE  -fexceptions -fPIC -fno-omit-frame-pointer -pthread -I/home/matteson/sundials/include/ -L/home/matteson/sundials/lib -lsundials_cvode -L/home/matteson/sundials/lib -lsundials_nvecserial
         CDEBUGFLAGS        = -g
         COPTIMFLAGS        = -O -DNDEBUG
         CLIBS              = -Wl,-rpath-link,/misc/linux/64/opt/pkg/matlab/R2010b/bin/glnxa64 -L/misc/linux/64/opt/pkg/matlab/R2010b/bin/glnxa64 -lmx -lmex -lmat -lm -lstdc++
         arguments          =  -DMX_COMPAT_32
->    CXX                   = g++
->    CXX flags:
         CXXFLAGS           = -ansi -D_GNU_SOURCE -fPIC -fno-omit-frame-pointer -pthread
         CXXDEBUGFLAGS      = -g
         CXXOPTIMFLAGS      = -O -DNDEBUG
         CXXLIBS            = -Wl,-rpath-link,/misc/linux/64/opt/pkg/matlab/R2010b/bin/glnxa64 -L/misc/linux/64/opt/pkg/matlab/R2010b/bin/glnxa64 -lmx -lmex -lmat -lm
         arguments          =  -DMX_COMPAT_32
->    FC                    = g95
->    FC flags:
         FFLAGS             = -fexceptions -fPIC -fno-omit-frame-pointer
         FDEBUGFLAGS        = -g
         FOPTIMFLAGS        = -O
         FLIBS              = -Wl,-rpath-link,/misc/linux/64/opt/pkg/matlab/R2010b/bin/glnxa64 -L/misc/linux/64/opt/pkg/matlab/R2010b/bin/glnxa64 -lmx -lmex -lmat -lm
         arguments          =  -DMX_COMPAT_32
->    LD                    = gcc44
->    Link flags:
         LDFLAGS            = -pthread -shared -Wl,--version-script,/misc/linux/64/opt/pkg/matlab/R2010b/extern/lib/glnxa64/mexFunction.map -Wl,--no-undefined -fopenmpofopenmp
         LDDEBUGFLAGS       = -g
         LDOPTIMFLAGS       = -O
         LDEXTENSION        = .mexa64
         arguments          = 
->    LDCXX                 = 
->    Link flags:
         LDCXXFLAGS         = 
         LDCXXDEBUGFLAGS    = 
         LDCXXOPTIMFLAGS    = 
         LDCXXEXTENSION     = 
         arguments          = 
----------------------------------------------------------------


Warning: You are using gcc version "4.4.4".  The version
         currently supported with MEX is "4.3.4".
         For a list of currently supported compilers see: 
         http://www.mathworks.com/support/compilers/current_release/

-> gcc44 -c  -I/misc/linux/64/opt/pkg/matlab/R2010b/extern/include -I/misc/linux/64/opt/pkg/matlab/R2010b/simulink/include -DMATLAB_MEX_FILE -ansi -D_GNU_SOURCE  -fexceptions -fPIC -fno-omit-frame-pointer -pthread -I/home/matteson/sundials/include/ -L/home/matteson/sundials/lib -lsundials_cvode -L/home/matteson/sundials/lib -lsundials_nvecserial  -DMX_COMPAT_32 -O -DNDEBUG  "mex_cvode.c"

-> gcc44 -O -pthread -shared -Wl,--version-script,/misc/linux/64/opt/pkg/matlab/R2010b/extern/lib/glnxa64/mexFunction.map -Wl,--no-undefined -fopenmpofopenmp -o  "mex_cvode.mexa64"  mex_cvode.o  -Wl,-rpath-link,/misc/linux/64/opt/pkg/matlab/R2010b/bin/glnxa64 -L/misc/linux/64/opt/pkg/matlab/R2010b/bin/glnxa64 -lmx -lmex -lmat -lm -lstdc++

mex_cvode.o: In function `mexFunction':
mex_cvode.c:(.text+0x2b2): undefined reference to `N_VNew_Serial'
mex_cvode.c:(.text+0x2db): undefined reference to `N_VNew_Serial'
mex_cvode.c:(.text+0x35b): undefined reference to `CVodeCreate'
mex_cvode.c:(.text+0x39c): undefined reference to `CVodeInit'
mex_cvode.c:(.text+0x3dd): undefined reference to `CVodeSVtolerances'
mex_cvode.c:(.text+0x412): undefined reference to `CVodeSetUserData'
mex_cvode.c:(.text+0x449): undefined reference to `CVDense'
mex_cvode.c:(.text+0x482): undefined reference to `CVDlsSetDenseJacFn'
mex_cvode.c:(.text+0x50c): undefined reference to `CVode'
mex_cvode.c:(.text+0x5b4): undefined reference to `N_VDestroy_Serial'
mex_cvode.c:(.text+0x5c0): undefined reference to `N_VDestroy_Serial'
mex_cvode.c:(.text+0x5cc): undefined reference to `CVodeFree'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

    mex: link of ' "mex_cvode.mexa64"' failed.

??? Error using ==> mex at 208
Unable to complete successfully.

Somehow, I'm not giving the correct flags to link appropriately. As I get the same set of errors (plus a few more) if I remove the commands to link in the gcc44 command, I'm pretty sure that I'm not getting the compiler to "see" the libraries.

My questions are :

• If my analysis of the error is correct, what flags do I need to pass to the mex compilation command to successfully link?
• Alternatively, what are the gcc flags to compile and link outside of the Matlab environment to compile a .mex64 executable?
• If my analysis is wrong, where to go from here?

I think I've ruled out the unsupported compiler warning since I've been able to compile simple mex with OpenMP programs using gcc 4.4, but these did not have to link against anything except the math library. Also, if I compile with version gcc version 4.1.2 or 4.3.4 with or without the "-fopenmp" flags I get the same error.

In the end I do need version 4.4 because of certain OpenMP support that did not appear in prior versions.

Thanks in advance for the help.

--Andrew

Edits: (@KWATFORD)

So I tried the command with the statements outside the the quotes, and got the error:

-> gcc44 -c  -I/home/matteson/sundials/include/ -I/misc/linux/64/opt/pkg/matlab/R2010b/extern/include -I/misc/linux/64/opt/pkg/matlab/R2010b/simulink/include -DMATLAB_MEX_FILE -ansi -D_GNU_SOURCE  -fexceptions -fPIC -fno-omit-frame-pointer -pthread -fopenmp  -DMX_COMPAT_32 -O -DNDEBUG  "mex_cvode.c"

-> gcc44 -O -pthread -shared -Wl,--version-script,/misc/linux/64/opt/pkg/matlab/R2010b/extern/lib/glnxa64/mexFunction.map -Wl,--no-undefined -fopenmp -o  "mex_cvode.mexa64"  mex_cvode.o  -L/home/matteson/sundials/lib -lsundials_cvode -lsundials_nvecserial -Wl,-rpath-link,/misc/linux/64/opt/pkg/matlab/R2010b/bin/glnxa64 -L/misc/linux/64/opt/pkg/matlab/R2010b/bin/glnxa64 -lmx -lmex -lmat -lm -lstdc++

/usr/bin/ld: /home/matteson/sundials/lib/libsundials_cvode.a(cvode.o): relocation R_X86_64_32 against `a local symbol' can not be used when making a shared object; recompile with -fPIC
/home/matteson/sundials/lib/libsundials_cvode.a: could not read symbols: Bad value
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

    mex: link of ' "mex_cvode.mexa64"' failed.

??? Error using ==> mex at 208
Unable to complete successfully.

I'm a bit confused about the suggestion to recompile with "-fPIC" because when I look at the gcc44 command I see the -fPIC as an option.

Are they saying to recompile the library with -fPIC?

I don't have the source for the library, if the suggestion is to recompile the library is there a workaround?

What does "relocation against local object" mean?

My continued thanks.

Answer 1

Try not putting the -l, -L, or -I arguments in those environment variables. The mex function will handle those types of arguments directly. So perhaps something like:

mex -v CC="gcc44" CFLAGS="\$CFLAGS -fopenmp" LDFLAGS="\$LDFLAGS -fopenmp" -I/home/matteson/sundials/include/ -L/home/matteson/sundials/lib -lsundials_cvode -lsundials_nvecserial mex_cvode.c

Answer 2

Kwatford put me on the right track with the second question. I was able to get the mex command to work by rebuilding the sundials solver with shared libraries. Specifically, I built with:

% make distclean
% ./configure --prefix=/home/matteson/sundials --enable-shared
% make
% make install

Also, thanks to kwatford for the fix to the original by calling:

mex -v CC="gcc44" CFLAGS="\$CFLAGS -fopenmp" LDFLAGS="\$LDFLAGS -fopenmp" -I/home/matteson/sundials/include/ -L/home/matteson/sundials/lib -lsundials_cvode -lsundials_nvecserial mex_cvode.c

since mex knows how to handle the -L and -I.