Problems installing "MATLAB Engine for Python" with Anaconda

Question

I am using Python 3.4.3 | Anaconda 2.3.0 (x86_64) on OS X 10.10.5 and following these instructions to install MATLAB Engine for Python. Installation seems to succeed, but upon launching python & attempting to import, I see the following:

Python 3.4.3 |Anaconda 2.3.0 (x86_64)| (default, Oct 20 2015, 14:27:51) 
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5577)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import matlab.engine
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/tyler/.local/lib/python3.4/site-packages/matlab/engine/__init__.py", line 42, in <module>
    pythonengine = importlib.import_module("matlabengineforpython"+_PYTHONVERSION)
  File "/Users/tyler/anaconda/lib/python3.4/importlib/__init__.py", line 109, in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 2254, in _gcd_import
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 2237, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 2224, in _find_and_load_unlocked
ImportError: No module named 'matlabengineforpython3_4'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/tyler/.local/lib/python3.4/site-packages/matlab/engine/__init__.py", line 58, in <module>
    pythonengine = importlib.import_module("matlabengineforpython"+_PYTHONVERSION)
  File "/Users/tyler/anaconda/lib/python3.4/importlib/__init__.py", line 109, in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 2254, in _gcd_import
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 2237, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 2226, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1191, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1161, in _load_backward_compatible
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 539, in _check_name_wrapper
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1715, in load_module
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 321, in _call_with_frames_removed
ImportError: dlopen(/Applications/MATLAB_R2015b.app/extern/engines/python/dist/matlab/engine/maci64/matlabengineforpython3_4.so, 2):     Library not loaded: @rpath/libpython3.4m.dylib    
  Referenced from: /Applications/MATLAB_R2015b    .app/extern/engines/python/dist/matlab/engine/maci64/matlabengineforpython3_4.so    
  Reason: image not found    

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/Users/tyler/.local/lib/python3.4/site-packages/matlab/engine/__init__.py", line 60, in <module>
    raise EnvironmentError('The installation of MATLAB Engine for Python is '
OSError: The installation of MATLAB Engine for Python is corrupted.  Please reinstall it or contact MathWorks Technical Support for assistance.

While researching this issue, I found several other references to this exact issue on MathWorks' website, all without a resolution. The final link suggests the problem may be with dynamic linking.

Given how many scientific toolboxes are only available in MATLAB, it would be of great use to be able to call this engine using Anaconda. While there are other packages available that support this functionality, they invariably have limitations or other complexity like a client-server architecture.

Any suggestions are most welcome.

Answer 1

According to my communication with MathWorks support, MATLAB Engine for Python is incompatible with Anaconda. Fortunately, this is incorrect.

Thanks to some direction from the Anaconda mailing list, I found a simple solution:

sudo ln -s ~/anaconda/lib/libpython3.4m.dylib /usr/lib

After this, matlab.engine imports successfully. Hope this helps someone!

Edit: As of OS X 10.11 El Capitan, the workaround needs to be tweaked due to the Rootless feature, as root no longer has permission to modify /usr/lib

sudo ln -s ~/anaconda/lib/libpython3.4m.dylib /usr/local/lib

Answer 2

If you're trying to install matlab engine in a conda environment, follow the below steps:

cd "matlabroot\extern\engines\python"
python setup.py install --prefix="installdir"

Eg

cd /opt/MATLAB/R2019a/extern/engines/python
python setup.py install --prefix="/home/nagabhushan/anaconda3/"

Now, matlab engine package is actually installed under the separate anaconda3/lib/python3.6/site-package/matlab
So you need to manually move that matlab folder to the site-package folder your python is using. If you have multiple virtual envs, move it to the corresponding site-package folder of the virtual env you will run program. Eg anaconda3/envs/my_env/lob/python3.6/site-packages/matlab

References:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/41800724/3337089
https://stackoverflow.com/a/56553740/3337089

Edit 1 (03-Mar-2020):
I tried activating my environment and then simply installing matlab engine and it worked! I'm using Python 3.7

python setup.py install

Note that this initially gave error that error: You do not have write permission in build/lib/matlab/engine/, but changing the permission of build directory recursively worked: sudo chmod -R 777 build/