Build on macOS and Linux Operating Systems

Set Run-Time Library Path

At run time, you must tell the macOS and Linux^® operating system where the API shared libraries reside by setting an environment variable. The macOS or Linux command you use and the values you provide depend on your system architecture. Use this table for defining:

envvar — the name of the environment variable.
pathspec — the value to assign to envvar.
osfolder — the folder that contains the platform-specific library.
matlabroot — the root folder of your MATLAB^® installation.

Operating System	`envvar`	`pathspec`
macOS with Apple silicon	`DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH`	`matlabroot``/bin/maca64:``matlabroot``/sys/os/maca64`
macOS with Intel^®	`DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH`	`matlabroot``/bin/maci64:``matlabroot``/sys/os/maci64`
Linux	`LD_LIBRARY_PATH`	`matlabroot``/bin/glnxa64:``matlabroot``/sys/os/glnxa64`

To set the library path, type:

envvar=pathspec

Replace the terms envvar and pathspec with the appropriate values from the table. To specify pathspec, use matlabroot and replace osfolder with the subfolder under /bin/.

pathspec=matlabroot/bin/osfolder:matlabroot/sys/os/osfolder

For example, on a macOS with Apple silicon, replace osfolder with maca64.

DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=matlabroot/bin/maca64:matlabroot/sys/os/maca64

Build Application

To compile and link MAT-file programs, use the mex script with the -client engine option.

This example shows how to build the example matcreat.c. Use this example to verify the build configuration for your system. matcreat is a C program that demonstrates how to use the MAT-File API routines to create a MAT-file that you can load into MATLAB.

To build the example, first copy the source code to a writable folder on your path.

copyfile(fullfile(matlabroot,'extern','examples','eng_mat','matcreat.c'),'.','f')

Use the following command to build it.

mex -client engine matcreat.c

To modify the build instructions for your particular compiler, use the -v -n options to view the current compiler and linker settings. Then, modify the settings using the mex varname=varvalue option.