Ubuntu – Matlab .desktop file

desktopMATLAB

(This is not about creating a launcher in the dock or anything like that.)

When I navigate into a folder with some Matlab .m files, and simply do

matlab myscript.m

in the terminal, it launches Matlab with working directory set to where the file is.

This has some perks: If there is also a startup.m file in the directory – and therefore in Matlab path – Matlab will notice and run it.

I tried to replicate this functionality with a .desktop file, so I could click an .m file (recognized as objective C by Ubuntu…) with the same results as if I run it from terminal, but no luck.

Here is what I have tried:

I put text/x-objcsrc=Matlab.desktop in /home/jakub/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list

and created this desktop file in /home/jakub/.local/share/applications

Version=1.0
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Exec=matlab -desktop
Name=Matlab
Icon=/home/jakub/Pictures/icons/Apps-Matlab-icon.png
Categories=Development

When I click an .m file, it launches Matlab, but it is not equivalent to running it from the terminal (see above): Mainly, work dir is set to Matlab's default, instead of where the script is, and the script does not open, just plain Matlab with empty editor.

I also tried this:

Exec=matlab -desktop -r "edit %f"

which opens the file but does not set the work dir

Exec=matlab -desktop -r "cd %d"

which changes the work dir, but after Matlab is run, which means it will not run the code in startup.m (so it is not equivalent to doing matlab myscript.m in the terminal).

Is there any way of perfectly mimicking matlab myscript.m as run from the terminal, but in a desktop file?

Best Answer

I had the a similar issue, when I tried to set Matlab up manually.

Eventually, I ran:
sudo apt-get install matlab-support
and followed installation instructions. This just adds Matlab to the Dashboard.

The resulting matlab.desktop file reads:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Exec=matlab -desktop
Name=MATLAB
Icon=/usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps/matlab.png
Categories=Development;Math;Science
Comment=Scientific computing environment
StartupNotify=true
StartupWMClass=com-mathworks-util-PostVMInit

To open .m files in matlab by clicking on them I used the Ubuntu GUI to set it to open those files with the command:

matlab -desktop -r "open %U;"

This both opens the file in Matlab and sets the current working directory to where the file is located (at least with Matlab 2016b).

I hope this information helps.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to make a Matlab launcher for Unity

Garrett's answer almost works for me, but instead I have to use

StartupWMClass=sun-awt-X11-XFramePeer

This still gives an extra launcher icon while the splashscreen is visible (because the WM_CLASS of the spashscreen is just "MATLAB"), but then the window gets properly grouped under the launcher.

New instances of Matlab (started by terminal, or Synapse, or from another tty with export DISPLAY=:0) also get grouped under this launcher, and the launcher's quit option kills all of them.

I found this WM_CLASS value by using

$ xprop WM_CLASS

and then clicking on the Matlab window, a command I got from Superuser.

To prevent the temporary extra launcher icon, you can also add the -nosplash flag after the -desktop one.

So, my ~/.local/share/applications/MATLAB.desktop looks like this:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Icon=matlab
Name=Matlab
Comment=Start MATLAB - The Language of Technical Computing
Exec=matlab -desktop -nosplash
Terminal=false
Categories=Development;
StartupNotify=true
StartupWMClass=sun-awt-X11-XFramePeer
X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=New_Window;

Name[en_US]=MATLAB

[New_Window Shortcut Group]
Name=start a new MATLAB instance
Exec=matlab -desktop

This is on Ubuntu 12.10, with Matlab R2012b

Ubuntu – My custom .desktop file appears in Dash as a text file

If you take a good look in Dash, you will find out that matlab.desktop does not appear as an application, but the file matlab.desktop appears in search, or recently used, since you obviously edited it.

The error

The reason is that Dash does not see it as a valid .desktop file for (at least) the following reason:

You should not use relative paths in a .desktop file (Desktop/Programs/scripts/runMatlab.sh is relative), but absolute paths.

Other possible reasons could be an invalid icon path or the fact that you call the script without the preceding sh (if the script is not executable, but given the other information in your question, that seems not to be the case).

Notes

Another thing is that if you store the script on what appears to be a local directory, you should not store the .desktop file in /usr/share/applications, but in ~/.local/share/applications.
There is no need to make a .desktop file executable if you run it from Dash or the Launcher. Most launchers in either /usr/share/applications or ~/.local/share/applications are not. Only if you locate it on- and run it from your Desktop.