Can I use MATLAB from the Terminal Command Line in OS X?

I recently installed MATLAB R2010b on a Mac running OS 10.7. I'd like to be able to run it from the command line, ala a Linux system, as I'm not terribly thrilled with the Matlab UI, and I end up SSHing into my computer a fair amount and prefer to stick with the terminal for the most part.

There weren't any instructions for doing so in the Install Guide. Is there a way to set this up? Thanks in advance.

[Brando Miranda]

was the matlab command not available for you? It wasn't for me.

Answer 1

[the cyclist]

I believe you should be able type

 matlab -nodesktop

at the command prompt. (I got a license error when I did that, but I think it should work.)

[Eric]

I tried this to no avail. Typing 'matlab -nodesktop' spits out '-bash: matlab: command not found'. Similarly, $which matlab doesn't produce anything. It seems this doesn't get set up at all during installation.

[the cyclist]

Try going to the MATLAB package directory (in the /Applications folder).

[Eric]

/Applications/MATLAB_R2010b.app/bin/matlab -nodesktop seemed to work.

[Todd]

Thank you! This answer worked for me!

[Brando Miranda]

It didn't work for me either. It seems bash doesn't recognize matlab as a command. Where are the binaries so that I can update my path?

[Pradyumn Sinha]

./matlab -nodesktop Run this after you have reached the appropriate directory as described above.

[Walter Roberson]

See https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/16407-can-i-use-matlab-from-the-terminal-command-line-in-os-x#comment_339555 for an alias you can add to your .bashrc

[abdullah alzaqebah]

I tried to do this on remote server also give me error 103

[Ethan Duckworth]

This works, sort of. I added

alias matlab="/Applications/MATLAB_R2020b.app/bin/matlab -nodesktop"

to both .bashrc and .bash_profile and ...

(1) Yes, it launched.

(2) It's a little slow to launch, probably because it still launches some sort of graphical app wrapper, i.e. a graphical splash screen, and an icon in the dock, which in turn creates a MATLAB menu bar along the the top, and the terminal includes a whole bunch of complaints about not finding various fonts, about 10 lines like this

2021-02-05 16:22:08.382 MATLAB_maci64[96303:7667690] CoreText note: Client requested name ".SFNS-Regular", it will get Times-Roman rather than the intended font. All system UI font access should be through proper APIs such as CTFontCreateUIFontForLanguage() or +[NSFont systemFontOfSize:].

It would be nice to have something that launches faster, with no graphical splash screen, icon, menu bar, and lines of font complaints.

[Ethan Duckworth]

Thanks @Aljosa Veljovic, see the post farther down in the thread

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/16407-can-i-use-matlab-from-the-terminal-command-line-in-os-x#comment_1310462

Answer 2

[David]

Thanks all!

I also just tried updating the path at the terminal before running matlab with:

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/MATLAB/R2010b/bin/

Then I typed "matlab" from the terminal and it worked fine. Must something odd going on with my .bashrc or .bash_profile not updating PATH when I ssh into my Linux workstation.

[Brando Miranda]

but how did you find the location of the binaries of MATLAB in the first place?

[Walter Roberson]

The binaries are under fullfile(matlabroot, 'bin')

Answer 3

[Cheng Yang]

I found

matlab -nodisplay

works better for me. -nodesktop still add an icon to the dock

[Mahmud Sami Özgür]

When I launch with

matlab -nodisplay

plot functions do not show anything.

matlab -nodesktop -nosplash

works better.

[Ethan Duckworth]

For me, -nodisplay is the final trick. It suppresses the icon in the dock, and the font loading errors. Thanks!

Answer 4

[Carter Rhea]

If you have a .cshrc file, then you can just type alias matlab '/Applications/MATLAB_R2015a.app/bin/matlab -nodesktop'

granted you are using MATLAB_R2015a. Though if you are using a different version just change that. Also make sure you are using the -csh shell which you can check with echo $SHELL. it can be changed by typing: -chsh -s /bin/csh

I hope this helps!

[Brando Miranda]

Why do I need to use -csh shell? whats wrong with bash?

[Brando Miranda]

Is it necessary to have know where the bin location is? That seems weird to me, shouldn't do this automatically after installing?

[Walter Roberson]

Bash is fine, some people just prefer csh. Bash uses a couple of different initialization files, with the most relevant one probably being ~/.bashrc . The syntax for aliases is different for bash,

alias matlab='/Applications/MATLAB_R2015a.app/bin/matlab -nodesktop'

OS-X is usually used as a desktop, so MATLAB on OS-X is usually used by clicking on an icon. (You have to install an additional software product to best use OS-X as a server.) With the /Applications structure, it is not typical for add-on packages that have graphics interfaces to write anything into the directories that are on the PATH by default -- not part of the expected "look and feel" of administering OS-X.

[Brando Miranda]

you might need fullfile(matlabroot, 'bin') to find where the bin is...just copying ur answer doesn't work (of course).

[__init__.py]

I simply type (either bash or cshell)

open <filename>.m

to launch MALTAB if I'd like to run a script at the same time.

The "open" command of Macintosh is equivalent to the effect that you double-click to open a file in Finder - it will launch whatsoever the associated application of the file.

[Walter Roberson]

using open would be for graphics use not for terminal use.

Answer 5

[darryl west]

or just a bit better with...

alias matlab='/Applications/MATLAB_R2016b.app/bin/matlab -nodesktop -nosplash $*'

[Walter Roberson]

I am not sure why you say that would be better? "alias" acts like a substitution at the beginning of a command, so if you were to use the alias I showed without the $* part and were to type

matlab this that the other

the effect would be the same as

/Applications/MATLAB_R2015a.app/bin/matlab -nodesktop this that the other

Specifying $* would be something you would do if you were creating a shell function or shell script, but aliases expand in-line and so do not need $* expansion to bring in anything else typed at the end of the line.

[Brando Miranda]

this is really annoying, why isn't it "just there"?

[Brando Miranda]

you might also need fullfile(matlabroot, 'bin')

[Steven Lord]

Brando Miranda, on Linux you can create symbolic links during the installation process. See step 8 on this page from the installation documentation. I don't remember off the top of my head if this option is available in the Mac installer, but I suspect it is (or there is a similar option.)

[Walter Roberson]

The Mac installer does not offer to create links.

[Walter Roberson]

why isn't it "just there"?

Apple discourages apps from modifying system-level initialization files.

Apple is now even dealing with potential issues with kernel drivers by forcing applications to provide their own versions of kernel extensions that live in user space, rather than being shared by several programs in some mid-level authorization space, and the user-level extensions have to be signed by developer certificate.

This turns out to be one of the reasons why the NVIDIA graphics drivers are not being approved by Apple: Apple is forcing the graphics drivers to be per application and signed by the developers -- who, obviously, do not have the interaction with NVIDIA to do that kind of bundling.

Apple is being hard on companies that compete with it; and these days, with it pushing into its own CPUs (not Intel compatible), its own graphics cards and its own GPUs (both custom silicon and not compatible with AMD or NVIDIA), NVIDIA is considered a competitor.