How does MATLAB know what toolboxes are installed?

The toolboxes get installed underneath `$INSTALL_PATH/toolbox` but there seems to be more at play than just probing a set path on the file system. What goes on in the installer when a new toolbox is installed to an existing MATLAB installation?

Answer 1

[Paul]

I think I figured out my question, though perhaps I just didn't know what to ask. The `ver` command seems to magically know what toolboxes are installed, and when I looked, it was scanning the MATLAB search path to figure out the names and versions of the toolboxes which are installed.

At that point, all I needed to know is how the global MATLAB search path is initialized. The answer seems to be an automatically-generated file located at `$INSTALL_ROOT/toolbox/local/pathdef.m`. It contains a list of hard-coded search paths that I think are only updated at install time.

I'm not sure what the MATLAB installer uses to regenerate this file, so if for some reason you are not depending on the MATLAB installer to do this, you will have to devise some alternate means (unless someone else knows better). Though, I do see in `$INSTALL_ROOT/toolbox/local/path` a bunch of simple *.phl text files which appear to have relative paths to all the installed toolboxes, so perhaps that would be of aid.

Answer 2

[Yu Jiang]

Type ver (See Documentation) in the command window and see if you have the toolbox in the list.

[Paul]

Thanks, I do know about the `ver` command and it's how I've been verifying that MATLAB sees a toolbox. I've dug through the source code of it, and it seems like it works by scanning the toolboxes on the MATLAB path. So, I guess the question then becomes, how does MATLAB bootstrap the paths?

Answer 3

[Image Analyst]

Actually apparently it's not much more than putting all your files in a folder and adding that folder to the search path. Here's the official Mathworks Answer: http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/91381-how-do-i-create-my-own-matlab-toolbox-and-a-list-of-its-contents

Your accepted answer of "it uses ver to figure out what toolboxes are installed" is not really accurate. Sure, it will tell you what toolboxes are installed, but even if you never ever call ver , MATLAB will still figure out what toolboxes are installed because it will find toolbox functions you call by traversing the search path. ver is not required.

[Andreas Goser]

In addition, you may want to distinguish between installed and licensed products. The can be important in situations where the IT departments installs efficiently all purchased products for let's say 1000 users, but they are not all licensed for all products, but by persor or department. Check out the 'license' command.