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Matlab compiler bug and workaround

January 28, 2015 6 Comments

I recently consulted at a client who uses R2010a and compiles his code for distribution. Debugging compiled code is often tricky, since we do not have the Matlab desktop to help us debug stuff (well, actually we do have access to a scaled-down desktop for minimal debugging using some undocumented internal hooks, but that’s a topic for a separate article). In my client’s case, I needed to debug a run-time error that threw an exception to the console:

Error using strtrim
Input should be a string or a cell array of strings.
Error in updateGUI (line 121)

Sounds simple enough to debug right? Just go to updateGUI.m line #121 and fix the call to strtrim(), correct?
Well, not so fast… It turns out that updateGUI.m line #121 is an empty line surrounded on either side by one-line comments. This is certainly not the line that caused the error. The actual call to strtrim() only occurs in line #147!
What’s going on?
The answer is that the Matlab compiler has a bug with comment blocks – lines surrounded by %{ and %}:

15   %{
16       This is a comment block that is
17       ignored by the Matlab engine,
18       and causes a line-numbering
19       error in the Matlab compiler!
20   %}
21 
22   a = strtrim(3.1416);  % this generates an error

In the example above, the 6-line comment block is ignored as expected by the Matlab engine in both interactive and compiled modes. However, whereas in interactive mode the error is correctly reported for line #22, in compiled mode it is reported for line #17. Apparently the compiler replaces any block comment with a single comment line before parsing the m-file.

The workaround is simple: count all the block-comment lines that precede the reported error line in the original m-file, and add that number to the reported line. In the example above, 17 + (6-1) = 22. Note that the source code could have multiple block-comments that precede the reported line, and they should all be counted. Here is a basic code snippet that does this parsing and opens the relevant m-file at the correct location:

% Read the source file (*.m)
str = fileread(filename,'*char');
% Split the contents into separate lines
lines = strtrim(strsplit(str',10));
% Search for comment block tokens
start_idx = find(strcmp(lines,'%{'));
end_idx   = find(strcmp(lines,'%}'));
% Count the number of block-comment lines in the source code
delta_idx = end_idx - start_idx;
relevant_idx = sum(start_idx < reported_line_number);
total_comment_block_lines = sum(delta_idx(1:relevant_idx));
% Open the source file at the correct line
opentoline(filename, reported_line_number + total_comment_block_lines);

% Read the source file (*.m) str = fileread(filename,'*char'); % Split the contents into separate lines lines = strtrim(strsplit(str',10)); % Search for comment block tokens start_idx = find(strcmp(lines,'%{')); end_idx = find(strcmp(lines,'%}')); % Count the number of block-comment lines in the source code delta_idx = end_idx - start_idx; relevant_idx = sum(start_idx < reported_line_number); total_comment_block_lines = sum(delta_idx(1:relevant_idx)); % Open the source file at the correct line opentoline(filename, reported_line_number + total_comment_block_lines);

This code snippet can fairly easily be wrapped in a stand-alone utility by anyone who wishes to do so. You’d need to generate the proper full-path source-code (m-file) filename of course, since this is not reported by the deployed application in its error message. You’d also need to take care of edge-cases such as p-coded or mex files, or missing source-code m-files. You’d also need to parse the input parameters (presumably filename and reported_line_number, but possibly also other inputs).
This is another example of a bug that does not officially exist in Matlab’s public bug parade (at least, I couldn’t find it). I’ve reported other such undocumented bugs in previous articles (here and here). Please don’t start another comments tirade on MathWorks’ bug-publication policies. I think that issue has already been discussed ad nauseam.
Update: according to Tom’s comment below, this bug was apparently fixed in R2012b.
Another related bug related to block comments is that at least on some Matlab releases (I haven’t tested properly to determine which releases), block comments are NOT properly ignored by the Editor’s publish functionality. Instead, at least on those releases where the bug occurs, publishing code that includes block comments parses the block’s contents as if it was runnable code. In other words, publish treats %{ and %} as one-line comments rather than as tokens marking the ends of a block comment.

Related posts:

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6 Responses
  1. Ty Cumby January 28, 2015 at 13:09 Reply

    I compiled the code snippet on Matlab 2014b (64-bit) and 2013a (32-bit) this bug does not seem to be present, thankfully. In both cases the compiled *.exe correctly reported the line number of the offending line.

    • Yair Altman January 28, 2015 at 13:14 Reply

      @Ty – thanks for the update

  2. Arthur January 29, 2015 at 09:35 Reply

    Would be very interested to read about “…well, actually we do have access to a scaled-down desktop for minimal debugging using some undocumented internal hooks..”. Is this topic by any chance covered in one of your books?

    • Yair Altman January 31, 2015 at 11:43 Reply

      @Arthur – chapter 8 of my Matlab-Java Programming book gets you partly there; the rest you can get by some extra digging. This seems to be a niche issue that would only be of interest to a few people, so I’m not sure I’ll write a dedicated article about this in the near future…

  3. Tom February 2, 2015 at 06:37 Reply

    Hi,

    i compiled the code snippet on Matlab Compiler 32 bit R2011b, R2012a, R2012b, R2013a and R2013b. The bug disappeared with R2012b when they changed the desktop GUI (Version 8.0).

    • Yair Altman February 2, 2015 at 06:39 Reply

      @Tom – thanks for the update

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