compiling a 32-bit C Shared Library

Hi all,

I need to compile a 32-bit C shared library to deploy some Matlab Code. I have installed Matlab 2015b on a 32-bit Machine running windows 10. However, I am having trouble locating a compatible 32-bit compiler. Does anyone have any pointers to a (preferably) free compiler that would be recognized by this version of Matlab. I have tried searching for the recommended compilers given under https://www.mathworks.com/content/dam/mathworks/mathworks-dot-com/support/sysreq/files/SystemRequirements-Release2015b_SupportedCompilers.pdf specifically "Microsoft Windows SDK 7.1 Available at no charge; requires .NET Framework 4." but to no avail. Any tips would be much appreciated.

Best wishes,

John

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

SDK 7.1 is your only option. It is, however, not easy to install on Windows 10. You could experiment with the work-around described at https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/sqlserver/en-US/1de7c9b4-1feb-4c98-b426-f7f02cbafa99/windows-sdk-71-on-windows-10?forum=windowssdk

[John Anderson]

Hi Walter, Thanks for your advice. In the end I found it quite a struggle to work with windows 10 and have switched to a machine running windows 7 (32 bit). I have installed Matlab 2015b and followed the advice of Jeremy Wong given on the link you provided namely

1. Uninstall any Visual C++ 2010 Redistributables from the control panel first.

2. Download the corresponding offline ISO image from the Windows SDK archive.

3. After mounting the image, open F:\Setup\SDKSetup.exe directly.

This enabled me to install the windows 7 SDK.

However, having done this I now find that Matlab seems unable to detect the compiler (assuming I have successfully installed it) Executing mex -setup -v gives the following output.

>> mex -setup -v
Verbose mode is on.
... Looking for compiler 'Intel C++ Composer XE 2011 with Microsoft SDK 7.1 (C)' ...
... Looking for environment variable 'ICPP_COMPILER12' ...No.
Did not find installed compiler 'Intel C++ Composer XE 2011 with Microsoft SDK 7.1 (C)'.
... Looking for compiler 'Intel C++ Composer XE 2011 with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 (C)' ...
... Looking for environment variable 'ICPP_COMPILER12' ...No.
Did not find installed compiler 'Intel C++ Composer XE 2011 with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 (C)'.
... Looking for compiler 'Intel C++ Composer XE 2011 with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 (C)' ...
... Looking for environment variable 'ICPP_COMPILER12' ...No.
Did not find installed compiler 'Intel C++ Composer XE 2011 with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 (C)'.
... Looking for compiler 'Intel C++ Composer XE 2013 with Microsoft SDK 7.1 (C)' ...
... Looking for environment variable 'ICPP_COMPILER14' ...No.
... Looking for environment variable 'ICPP_COMPILER13' ...No.
Did not find installed compiler 'Intel C++ Composer XE 2013 with Microsoft SDK 7.1 (C)'.
... Looking for compiler 'Intel C++ Composer XE 2013 with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 (C)' ...
... Looking for environment variable 'ICPP_COMPILER14' ...No.
... Looking for environment variable 'ICPP_COMPILER13' ...No.
Did not find installed compiler 'Intel C++ Composer XE 2013 with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 (C)'.
... Looking for compiler 'Intel C++ Composer XE 2013 with Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 (C)' ...
... Looking for environment variable 'ICPP_COMPILER14' ...No.
... Looking for environment variable 'ICPP_COMPILER13' ...No.
Did not find installed compiler 'Intel C++ Composer XE 2013 with Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 (C)'.
... Looking for compiler 'lcc-win32' ...
... Looking for folder 'C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2015b\sys\lcc' ...Yes.
Found installed compiler 'lcc-win32'.
... Looking for compiler 'Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Professional (C)' ...
... Looking for environment variable 'VS90COMNTOOLS' ...No.
Did not find installed compiler 'Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Professional (C)'.
... Looking for compiler 'Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Professional (C)' ...
... Looking for environment variable 'VS100COMNTOOLS' ...No.
Did not find installed compiler 'Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Professional (C)'.
... Looking for compiler 'Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 (C)' ...
... Looking for registry setting 'HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\SxS\VS7' 11.0 ...No.
... Looking for registry setting 'HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\SxS\VS7' 11.0 ...No.
... Looking for registry setting 'HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\SxS\VS7' 11.0 ...No.
... Looking for registry setting 'HKCU\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\SxS\VS7' 11.0 ...No.
Did not find installed compiler 'Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 (C)'.
... Looking for compiler 'Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Professional (C)' ...
... Looking for registry setting 'HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\SxS\VS7' 12.0 ...No.
... Looking for registry setting 'HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\SxS\VS7' 12.0 ...No.
... Looking for registry setting 'HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\SxS\VS7' 12.0 ...No.
... Looking for registry setting 'HKCU\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\SxS\VS7' 12.0 ...No.
Did not find installed compiler 'Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Professional (C)'.
... Looking for compiler 'Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Professional (C)' ...
... Looking for registry setting 'HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\SxS\VS7' 14.0 ...No.
... Looking for registry setting 'HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\SxS\VS7' 14.0 ...No.
... Looking for registry setting 'HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\SxS\VS7' 14.0 ...No.
... Looking for registry setting 'HKCU\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\SxS\VS7' 14.0 ...No.
Did not find installed compiler 'Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Professional (C)'.
... Looking for compiler 'Microsoft Windows SDK 7.1 (C)' ...
... Looking for registry setting 'HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1' InstallationFolder ...Yes ('C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1\').
... Looking for registry setting 'HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\SxS\VC7' 10.0 ...No.
... Looking for registry setting 'HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\SxS\VC7' 10.0 ...No.
... Looking for registry setting 'HKCU\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\SxS\VC7' 10.0 ...No.
... Looking for registry setting 'HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\SxS\VC7' 10.0 ...No.
Did not find installed compiler 'Microsoft Windows SDK 7.1 (C)'.
Copied options file from 'C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2015b\bin\win32\mexopts\lcc-win32.xml' to 'C:\Users\John\AppData\Roaming\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2015b\mex_C_win32.xml'.
MEX configured to use 'lcc-win32' for C language compilation.
Warning: The MATLAB C and Fortran API has changed to support MATLAB
   variables with more than 2^32-1 elements. In the near future
   you will be required to update your code to utilize the
   new API. You can find more information about this at:
   http://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_external/upgrading-mex-files-to-use-64-bit-api.html.

To choose a different language, select one from the following:
 mex -setup C++ 
 mex -setup FORTRAN

[John Anderson]

I did just get this error when attempting to compile a C Shared library

Warning: Windows SDK 7.1 appears to be installed, but its compiler was not found. Install .NET Framework 4.0, and then rerun the SDK installation to add the "Visual C++ Compilers" component. See http://www.mathworks.com/support/solutions/en/data/1-IB1G3Q/ for more information.

I will check this out and see how I get on.

Best wishes,

John

[John Anderson]

Hi all,

So the installation I had attempted of Windows SDK 7.1 has a known problem in that the compilers are sometimes uninstalled during the installation. This requires you to run this patch

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=4422

However, this fails unless .NET 4.7.2 is installed. I had thought I had already done this but must have been in a previous life. Anyway I installed from here

https://www.microsoft.com/net/download/thank-you/net472?survey=false

And then successfully installed the patch.

Now Matlab detects the alternative compiler.

mex -setup

To choose a different C compiler, select one from the following:
lcc-win32  mex -setup:'C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2015b\bin\win32\mexopts\lcc-win32.xml' C
Microsoft Windows SDK 7.1 (C)  mex -setup:C:\Users\John\AppData\Roaming\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2015b\mex_C_win32.xml C

And I am able to compile a 32-bit C Shared library ... finally.

Thanks again for your initial tip Walter.

Best wishes,

John

[Fahimeh Dehghandehnavi]

Thank you Walter! This workaround solved my problem too!

Answer 2

[yalin kou]

We have a same trouble!