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Testing Failures

After you have successfully compiled your application, the next step is to test it on a development machine and deploy it on a target machine. Typically, the target machine does not have a MATLAB® installation and requires MATLAB Runtime to be installed. A distribution includes all of the files that are required by your application to run, which include the executable, deployable archive, and MATLAB Runtime.

Test the application on the development machine by running the application against the MATLAB Runtime shipped with MATLAB Compiler™. This will verify that library dependencies are correct, that the deployable archive can be extracted, and that all MATLAB code, MEX—files and support files required by the application have been included in the archive. If you encounter errors testing your application, the following questions may help you isolate the problem.

Are you able to execute the application from MATLAB?

On the development machine, you can test your application's execution by issuing !application-name at the MATLAB prompt. If your application executes within MATLAB but not from outside, this can indicate an issue with the system PATH variable.

Does the application begin execution and result in MATLAB or other errors?

Ensure that you included all necessary files when compiling your application (see the readme.txt file generated with your compilation for more details).

Functions that are called from your main MATLAB file are automatically included by MATLAB Compiler; however, functions that are not explicitly called, for example through EVAL, need to be included at compilation using the -a switch of the mcc command. Also, any support files like .mat, .txt, or .html files need to be added to the archive with the -a switch. There is a limitation on the functionality of MATLAB and associated toolboxes that can be compiled. Check the documentation to see that the functions used in your application's MATLAB files are valid. Check the file mccExcludedFiles.log on the development machine. This file lists all functions called from your application that cannot be compiled.

Occasionally, there is a version mismatch between a DLL included with both MATLAB Runtime and Microsoft® Windows®. You can investigate which DLLs are called by your application using the Process Monitor tool. For information on using Process Monitor with your deployed application, see How can I use Process Monitor to troubleshoot the execution of my program?.

Do you have multiple MATLAB versions installed?

Executables generated by MATLAB Compiler are designed to run in an environment where multiple versions of MATLAB are installed. Some older versions of MATLAB may not be fully compatible with this architecture.

On Windows, ensure that the matlabroot\runtime\win64 of the version of MATLAB in which you are compiling appears ahead of matlabroot\runtime\win64 of other versions of MATLAB installed on the PATH environment variable on your machine.

Similarly, on UNIX®, ensure that the dynamic library paths (LD_LIBRARY_PATH on Linux®) match. Do this by comparing the outputs of !printenv at the MATLAB prompt and printenv at the shell prompt. Using this path allows you to use mcc from the operating system command line.

If you are testing a standalone executable or shared library and driver application, did you install MATLAB Runtime?

All shared libraries required for your standalone executable or shared library are contained in MATLAB Runtime. Installing MATLAB Runtime is required for any of the deployment targets.

Do you receive an error message about a missing DLL?

Error messages indicating missing DLLs such as mclmcrrtX_XX.dll or mclmcrrtX_XX.so are generally caused by an incorrect installation of MATLAB Runtime. For information on installing MATLAB Runtime, see Install and Configure MATLAB Runtime.

It is also possible that MATLAB Runtime is installed correctly, but the PATH,LD_LIBRARY_PATH, or DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH variable is set incorrectly. For information on setting environment variables, see Set MATLAB Runtime Path for Deployment.

Caution

Do not solve these problems by moving libraries or other files within the MATLAB Runtime folder structure. The MATLAB Runtime system is designed to accommodate different MATLAB Runtime versions operating on the same machine. The folder structure is an important part of this feature.

Does your system’s graphics card support graphics applications?

In situations where the existing hardware graphics card does not support the graphics application, use software OpenGL. OpenGL libraries are visible for an application by appending matlabroot/sys/opengl/lib/arch to the library path. For example, on Linux, enter the following in a Bash shell:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:matlabroot/sys/opengl/lib/glnxa64

For more information on setting environment variables, see Set MATLAB Runtime Path for Deployment.

Is OpenGL properly installed on your system?

When searching for OpenGL libraries, MATLAB Runtime first looks on the system library path. If OpenGL is not found there, it uses the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable to locate the libraries. If you are getting failures due to the OpenGL libraries not being found, you can append the location of the OpenGL libraries to the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable. For example, on Linux, enter the following in a Bash shell:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:matlabroot/sys/opengl/lib/glnxa64

For more information on setting environment variables, see Set MATLAB Runtime Path for Deployment.