MATLAB Runtime Server

Automatically Packaging Files for Shipping

The Runtime Server software includes a packaging utility that can automatically archive your application files and create all the executable files that your users need in order to install your application on their machines.

The packaging utility is called package and is located in the toolbox\runtime\oem directory. When you execute package, it prompts you for all necessary information. It reports all relevant information to you, including the files it creates and the instructions that you should follow in order to test the installation. These are the same instructions that end users need to follow in order to install your application. Installing and Running the Application contains more information about the installer software.

The rest of this section contains more detail for PC and UNIX versions of package.

Packaging Utility on PC

To run the automatic packaging utility on PC platforms, follow these steps:

1. Create a configuration file, which is a text file that lists the names of all files that your application uses. This should include runtime P-files and any MEX-files that your application depends on.

Note    If buildp or depfun indicates that your application uses Java classes, then your configuration file must include: matlabroot\toolbox\local\classpath.txt, matlabroot\sys\java\jre\win32\jre\*, as well as whatever files your application requires from the matlabroot\java\jar and matlabroot\java\jarext hierarchies of directories.

A sample configuration file is toolbox\runtime\oem\user.config_pc. Notice from the sample user.config_pc file that the path of each listed file starts from toolbox (for example, toolbox\local\matlabrt.p).

If you used the buildp function to create P-code for your application, then you can use a text editor to adapt the output variable depfunout{1} to turn it into a valid configuration file. When you adapt the contents of depfunout{1}, remember to change .m into .p because you have presumably compiled each M-file into a P-file. Also remember to use the .dll extension for MEX-files.

When preparing the configuration file, you may use * as a wildcard, # to preface comments, and blank lines to improve readability.

2. Go to the system prompt and navigate to the toolbox\runtime\oem directory. Run the packaging utility using one of the commands below.

package (if your application does not use Java classes)

package -java (if your application uses Java classes)

The packaging utility prompts you for:

1. The path to your stamped MATLAB root directory
2. The path of your configuration file
3. A name for your application. This is the name of the batch file that the automatic installer creates when your end users install your application. If you do not specify a name, then the batch file is called demo_app.bat.

Alternatively, the syntaxes below eliminate the need for prompts.

package -r matlabroot -c config_file -n app_name

package -java -r matlabroot -c config_file -n app_name

The packaging utility produces a file called setup.exe in the directory from which it was launched. This is the file you should ship to end users.

Packaging Utility on UNIX

To run the automatic packaging utility on UNIX platforms, follow these steps:

1. Create a configuration file, which is a text file that lists the names of all files that your application uses. This should include runtime P-files and any MEX-files that your application depends on.

Note    If buildp or depfun indicates that your application uses Java classes, then your configuration file must include: matlabroot/toolbox/local/classpath.txt; matlabroot/sys/java/jre/arch/jre and the directory that this symbolic link points to; and whatever files your application requires from the matlabroot/java/jar and matlabroot/java/jarext hierarchies of directories. Here, arch is an architecture-specific directory name.

Note    If you use MEX-files on multiple UNIX platforms, then you must package the files that are appropriate for each of the platforms. For example, if you use buildp on a Solaris machine and the depfunout output indicates that your application uses myapp.mexsol, then your shipping version for Linux users must include myapp.mexglx. In the configuration file for the packaging utility, you can use wildcards, as in myapp.mex*, to avoid omitting any files.

A sample configuration file is toolbox/runtime/oem/user.files. When you adapt user.files for your own application, you should preserve the lines that package install_rt, user.install, and user.app. You may change the part after that, using the format

name_of_source_file   location_of_source_file   target_location

where target_location refers to the destination directory in the end user's installation, relative to the directory from which the user runs the installer program.

In your configuration file, you can use $SCRIPTDIR to indicate the directory location of the package script and $MATLAB to indicate the MATLAB root directory. You can also use Bourne shell wildcards in filenames.

2. Run the script

toolbox/runtime/oem/package

using the -java switch if your application uses Java classes. The script prompts you for the MATLAB root directory, the architecture, and the name of your configuration file.

The package script produces two files:

• app.tar.files, which lists the files in the application
• app.tar, which is a tar file made from the application

You should ship app.tar to end users. For more details about the UNIX packaging utility, see the README file in toolbox/runtime/oem.

Organizing Files for Shipping

Manually Packaging Files for Shipping (PC)