How can I call a Matlab function that takes text input from the command line?

Question

I'm working on a medical robotics project that captures a series of images and then does some processing on them in MATLAB. Since a number of other things have to be done outside MATLAB, I'm using another language for the overall control, and using console commands to trigger other portions.

I have a single .m file with a single function that takes the filepath to the directory the images are in and does all the MATLAB processing. How can I call this from the command line? I've seen matlab -r "function(input)" discussed in some other answers here, but it doesn't work for me (I get a syntax error at the open paren). More specifically, I get: matlab: eval: line 1690: syntax error near unexpected token '('.

I've seen a few people saying this has to be done by calling a shell script (which I have no idea how to write), but a number of other people saying it's doable without that, can anyone clarify?

Additionally, assuming I've merely botched the matlab -r syntax, how does MATLAB know where to find the .m file? Does it need to be in whatever directory I'm running the command from?

dinkelk · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-18 06:23:56Z

4

I am guessing you are trying:

matlab -r test('hi')

and getting...

bash: syntax error near unexpected token `('

or something similar?

Answer: You need to use " " around the function(input), ie:

matlab -r "test('hi')"

This runs test.m in my current directory with the input string 'hi'.

To do this in a shell script named runmatlabcommand.sh, in say bash, you can just open a file and write:

#!/bin/bash
matlab -r "test('hi')"

and then execute this script from the command line by typing ./runmatlabcommand.sh. Make sure the script has execute permissions before you try to run it ;)

answered Dec 18, 2012 at 6:23

dinkelk

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6 Comments

Oblivious Sage Over a year ago

Ah, typo in the question actually. I was doing matlab -r "function(input)", with the quotes as you describe. Do I need the apostrophes around the input?

dinkelk Over a year ago

@Oblivious Sage Only if input is a string.

dinkelk Over a year ago

@Oblivious Sage Are you sure your script is in your current directory?

Oblivious Sage Over a year ago

Yes, I'm just testing it using Terminal, and I explicitly moved to the directory the .m script is in before calling the command. I added the apostrophes around the input string but I'm still getting the same error at the open paren. I added the exact error message to the question.

dinkelk Over a year ago

@Oblivious Sage Ah! That is a syntax error coming from badly formatted code within your MATLAB script. Do you get the same error when you run the script from within the MATLAB terminal.

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