Compiling Mex files in Mac 10.9

I'm trying to compile a mex file (in OS X 10.9) To be more specific, I'm trying to install the function SVMStruct (from http://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/~vedaldi/code/svm-struct-matlab.html#ssvm.download) but lack of mex command on my mac prevents from doing so. Here is the complete error message after typing

make MEX=/Applications/MATLAB_R2013a.app/bin/mex

 /Applications/MATLAB_R2013a.app/bin/mex -largeArrayDims - CFLAGS='$CFLAGS  -Wall' LDFLAGS='$LDFLAGS ' -outdir "build//" -c "svm_struct_api.c"

    mex:  - not a valid option.

    Usage:
      MEX [option1 ... optionN] sourcefile1 [... sourcefileN]
          [objectfile1 ... objectfileN] [libraryfile1 ... libraryfileN]

    Use the -help option for more information, or consult the MATLAB External Interfaces Guide.

 make: *** [build//svm_struct_api.o] Error 1

And this is the error message I receive when typing

make MEX=/Applications/MATLAB_R2013a.app/bin/mex ARCH=maci64

 /Applications/MATLAB_R2013a.app/bin/mex -largeArrayDims -maci64 CFLAGS='$CFLAGS -m64 -isysroot  /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk -mmacosx-version-min=10.4 -Wall' LDFLAGS='$LDFLAGS -mmacosx- version-min=10.4' -outdir "build/maci64/" -c "svm_struct_api.c"
xcrun: error: SDK "macosx10.7" cannot be located
clang: warning: no such sysroot directory: '/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk'
svm_struct_api.c:20:10: fatal error: 'stdio.h' file not found
#include <stdio.h>
         ^
1 error generated.

    mex: compile of ' "svm_struct_api.c"' failed.

 make: *** [build/maci64/svm_struct_api.o] Error 1

The error talks about Mac OS X 10.6 and 10.7 but I'm using 10.9.

Answer 1

[Geoff Hayes]

Kamil - I observed the same error when running Make (from the terminal window, in the folder /Users/geoff/.../svm-struct-matlab-1.0) as make ARCH=maci64

 ...
 Building with 'Xcode with Clang'.
 clang: warning: no such sysroot directory: '/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk'
 /Users/geoff/.../svm-struct-matlab-1.0/svm_struct_api.c:20:10: fatal error: 'stdio.h' file not 
 found #include <stdio.h>
 ...

The Makefile has the following lines (of interest)

 # Mac OS X Intel 32
 ifeq ($(ARCH),maci)
 SDKROOT ?= /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk

This folder doesn't exist on my computer (OS X 10.8.5). Since MEX has been configured to use 'Xcode with Clang', the equivalent SDKs directory is

 /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs

Within this directory, I have

 MacOSX10.8.sdk
 MacOSX10.9.sdk

So I changed the line in the Makefile from the

 SDKROOT ?= /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk

to

 SDKROOT ?= /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.8.sdk

and then re-ran make ARCH=maci64 and the svm_struct_learn.mexmaci64 file was built. (Running, in the Command Window of MATLAB, test_svm_struct_learn was successful).

I suggest you try updating the Makefile, in a similar manner as described above, with the appropriate MacOSX10.X.sdk.

[Kamil]

That's a very good hint. However, after making those changes, I stumble upon the following problem after re-running:

make MEX=/Applications/MATLAB_R2013a.app/bin/mex ARCH=maci64

 /Applications/MATLAB_R2013a.app/bin/mex -largeArrayDims -maci64 CFLAGS='$CFLAGS -m64 -isysroot /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.9.sdk -mmacosx-version-min=10.4 -Wall' LDFLAGS='$LDFLAGS -mmacosx-version-min=10.4' -outdir "build/maci64/" -c "svm_struct_api.c"
xcodebuild: error: SDK "macosx10.7" cannot be located.
xcrun: error: unable to find utility "clang", not a developer tool or in PATH

    mex: compile of ' "svm_struct_api.c"' failed.

 make: *** [build/maci64/svm_struct_api.o] Error 1

I installed Xcode 6, which supposedly comes with all the command line tools such as clang.

[Geoff Hayes]

Have you run

 mex -setup

in the Command Window of MATLAB to setup Clang as the C/C++ compiler? Have you built MEX functions already, or is your first attempt at building one?

[Kamil]

What I did to fix this error was to edit the mexopts.sh file, that is I changed every instance of 10.7 to 10.8. Then, as indicated, I ran

 mex -setup

And obtained

 /Applications/MATLAB_R2013a.app/bin/mexopts.sh is being copied to 
 /Users/kamil/.matlab/R2013a/mexopts.sh

This seemed to work partially as now there is a different error:

 /Applications/MATLAB_R2013a.app/bin/mex -largeArrayDims -maci64 CFLAGS='$CFLAGS -m64 -isysroot /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.8.sdk -mmacosx-version-min=10.4 -Wall' LDFLAGS='$LDFLAGS -mmacosx-version-min=10.4' -outdir "build/maci64/" -c "svm_struct_api.c"
/Users/kamil/.matlab/R2013a/mexopts.sh: line 176: unexpected EOF while looking for matching `''
/Users/kamil/.matlab/R2013a/mexopts.sh: line 205: syntax error: unexpected end of file
/Users/kamil/.matlab/R2013a/mexopts.sh: line 176: unexpected EOF while looking for matching `''
/Users/kamil/.matlab/R2013a/mexopts.sh: line 205: syntax error: unexpected end of file
/Applications/MATLAB_R2013a.app/bin/mex: line 1343: -c: command not found

    mex: compile of ' "svm_struct_api.c"' failed.

 make: *** [build/maci64/svm_struct_api.o] Error 1

And this is the first time when I'm building a MEX function. And thanks a lot for your help.

[Geoff Hayes]

Perhaps you deleted a single quote from around the '10.8' in the mexopts.sh file. Verify that the modifications you made to the file didn't accidentally remove a quote. i.e. should look like

 MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET='10.8'

[Kamil]

You're right, one of the quotes was miswritten. Subsequently, another error appeared

 /Applications/MATLAB_R2013a.app/bin/mex -largeArrayDims -maci64 CFLAGS='$CFLAGS -m64 -isysroot /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.8.sdk -mmacosx-version-min=10.4 -Wall' LDFLAGS='$LDFLAGS -mmacosx-version-min=10.4' -outdir "build/maci64/" -c "svm_struct_api.c"
In file included from svm_struct_api.c:22:
In file included from ./svm_struct/svm_struct_common.h:28:
In file included from ./svm_struct/../svm_light/svm_common.h:22:
In file included from /Applications/MATLAB_R2013a.app/extern/include/mex.h:58:
In file included from /Applications/MATLAB_R2013a.app/extern/include/matrix.h:294:
/Applications/MATLAB_R2013a.app/extern/include/tmwtypes.h:819:9: error: unknown type name 'char16_t'
typedef char16_t CHAR16_T;
        ^
1 error generated.

    mex: compile of ' "svm_struct_api.c"' failed.

 make: *** [build/maci64/svm_struct_api.o] Error 1

which was fixed by modifying the file /Applications/MATLAB_R2013a.app/extern/include/tmwtypes.h:

 typedef char16_t CHAR16_T;

into

 typedef UINT16_T CHAR16_T;

Then finally the file "svm_struct_learn.mexmaci64" was built.

Answer 2

[psr]

This solution still works for me on Matlab R2015b on MacOSierra