How to call Matlab from C++ code?

Question

I am trying to call Matlab functions from C++ code.

With Matlab it comes an example of such code at /extern/examples/eng_mat/engdemo.cpp, however I found no way to build that source code.

Here is the makefile I use:

CFLAGS = -Wall -O3

INCLUDES = -I/opt/Matlab-2009a/extern/include

LIBRARIES = -Wl,-R/opt/Matlab-2009a/bin/glnx86 -L/opt/Matlab-2009a/bin/glnx86 -lmx -lmat -leng

out : engdemo.cpp
    g++ $(CFLAGS) $(INCLUDES) -static $^ $(LIBRARIES) -o out

clean :
    rm -f out

(Here /opt/Matlab-2009a is my Matlab root.) I am getting a linker error like this:

/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lmx
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [out] Error 1

And the question is: how can I make g++ to compile engdemo.cpp ?

Note, that the shared library exists:

$ locate libmx.so
/opt/Matlab-2009a/bin/glnx86/libmx.so
/opt/Matlab-2009a/bin/glnx86/libmx.so.csf

and

$ ldd /opt/Matlab-2009a/bin/glnx86/libmx.so
    linux-gate.so.1 =>  (0x004b4000)
    libut.so => /opt/Matlab-2009a/bin/glnx86/../../bin/glnx86/libut.so (0x0078f000)
    libmwfl.so => /opt/Matlab-2009a/bin/glnx86/../../bin/glnx86/libmwfl.so (0x00110000)
    libicudata.so.38 => /opt/Matlab-2009a/bin/glnx86/../../bin/glnx86/libicudata.so.38 (0xb7f82000)
    libicuuc.so.38 => /opt/Matlab-2009a/bin/glnx86/../../bin/glnx86/libicuuc.so.38 (0x00bee000)
    libicui18n.so.38 => /opt/Matlab-2009a/bin/glnx86/../../bin/glnx86/libicui18n.so.38 (0x001f7000)
    libicuio.so.38 => /opt/Matlab-2009a/bin/glnx86/../../bin/glnx86/libicuio.so.38 (0x00e1c000)
    libz.so.1 => /usr/lib/libz.so.1 (0x0098e000)
    libstdc++.so.6 => /opt/Matlab-2009a/bin/glnx86/../../sys/os/glnx86/libstdc++.so.6 (0x00531000)
    libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0x00194000)
    libgcc_s.so.1 => /opt/Matlab-2009a/bin/glnx86/../../sys/os/glnx86/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00eaa000)
    libpthread.so.0 => /lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x00900000)
    libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00345000)
    librt.so.1 => /lib/librt.so.1 (0x00964000)
    libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x0014e000)
    libexpat.so.1 => /opt/Matlab-2009a/bin/glnx86/../../bin/glnx86/../../bin/glnx86/libexpat.so.1 (0x00152000)
    libboost_thread-gcc42-mt-1_36.so.1.36.0 => /opt/Matlab-2009a/bin/glnx86/../../bin/glnx86/../../bin/glnx86/libboost_thread-gcc42-mt-1_36.so.1.36.0 (0x00fc2000)
    libboost_signals-gcc42-mt-1_36.so.1.36.0 => /opt/Matlab-2009a/bin/glnx86/../../bin/glnx86/../../bin/glnx86/libboost_signals-gcc42-mt-1_36.so.1.36.0 (0x0017d000)
    libboost_system-gcc42-mt-1_36.so.1.36.0 => /opt/Matlab-2009a/bin/glnx86/../../bin/glnx86/../../bin/glnx86/libboost_system-gcc42-mt-1_36.so.1.36.0 (0x00a06000)
    /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x001db000)

So, how can I make g++ to compile engdemo.cpp ?

Answer 1

Assuming $MATLABROOT is the path to MATLAB:

$MATLABROOT/bin/mex -f $MATLABROOT/bin/engopts.sh engdemo.cpp

If you add the -v switch, the verbose output will show you what commands are being used to compile the engine application.