MATLAB: Saving to TXT from standalone executable

compilingi/o

Hi all, I've successfully compiled a Matlab program to a standalone executable for Mac OS, but there's only one bug remaining. The program needs to be able to read from and write to a text file. After compiling, this function no longer works, nor does the text file show up anywhere in the "distrib" or "src" directories. Does anyone know what I might be doing wrong?

Best Answer

Typically as mentioned above, the text file will be included in the CTF archive, if it was added as an additional file in deploytool. To access these files, I would consider using the ctfroot command. This command will give you the root directory where the CTF archive is expanded (when run as executable).

For example:

fid = fopen(fullfile(ctfroot,'Name of ExE',filename),'r');

If you want to be able to access this txt file outside of the executable, I would typically not include it in the archive (not add it to deploytool) and provide a full path to the txt file. You can even offer the user the choice to select it using uigetfile.

For example:

 [path, fname] = uigetfile('Select file','*.txt');
  fid = fopen(fullfile(path,fname),'r');

Related Solutions

MATLAB: How to include a data file with the standalone executable generated with the MATLAB Compiler 4.0 (R14)

Data files read by your MATLAB code are not automatically included with standalone applications by the MATLAB Compiler 4.0 (R14). There are three ways to ensure the data files are distributed to users running your compiled application:

1. Include the data file as part of the CTF archive generated by the MATLAB Compiler. For instance, if you have a function called myfun.m that reads the data file mydata.txt, you could compile this code using the following command:

mcc -m myfun.m -a mydata.txt

The mydata.txt file will now be included in the CTF file, and accessible from the standalone application.

To include multiple files you will need to repeat the -a option, as follows:

mcc -m myfun.m -a mydata1.txt -a mydata2.txt -a mydata3.txt

If you want to get the full path to the included data files in the CTF folder, you can do so by using the function CTFROOT, as in the following example:

function myfun
disp(fullfile(ctfroot, mfilename, 'mydata.txt'));

2. Copy the data file to the same location as your EXE- and CTF-files. Within your code, refer to the file by its filename only, with no additional path information. For example, if you open a data file called mydata.txt using the FOPEN function, use the following command:

fid = fopen ('mydata.txt');

See also the Related Solution referenced at the bottom of the page.

3. Refer to the data file by an absolute path on the system. This is the least desirable method since it relies on your data file being in a particular location on a system. As an example, you can include the data file in a directory called "datafiles". When opening a data file called mydata.txt, which exists in the "datafiles" directory, use the following function call in your code:

fid = fopen ('C:\datafiles\mydata.txt');

When deploying your application, you will need to ensure that a directory called "datafiles" exists on the "C" drive of the computer, and that it contains the file mydata.txt.

MATLAB: Can’t I start the MATLAB Compiler generated executable from a different directory using relative paths

This bug has been fixed in Release 14 Service Pack 2 (R14SP2). For previous releases, please read below for any possible workarounds:

You are trying to start the executable from a different directory by specifying a relative path. However, this is not supported directly. If you start a program from one directory using a relative path, your actual working directory is not the directory of the executable. The working directory must be the same as the executable in order for the CTF-file to be found or else the directory containing your CTF-file must be on your system PATH as the error mentions. Therefore, to work around this issue, add the directory in which the executable resides to the system executable search path. For instructions on how to modify the system path on Windows, see:

http://www.mathworks.com/support/solutions/data/1-15ZLK.html?solution=1-15ZLK

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MATLAB: How to include a data file with the standalone executable generated with the MATLAB Compiler 4.0 (R14)

MATLAB: Can’t I start the MATLAB Compiler generated executable from a different directory using relative paths

Related Question