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I have a standalone license for MATLAB R2016b with the Parallel Toolbox. I am writing an application that will be sent out to customers who may not have that toolbox installed and I would like to write my application so that it fails gracefully (i.e. runs single threaded). The problem is that since I have the toolbox installed, I never get an error when I try to use a parallel toolbox function, so I can't test the failure points.
To generalize the situation, I would like to be able to test the behavior of an application when a toolbox dependency is not met so I can either provide a meaningful message to the user for why they can't use my application or else provide a workaround.
Is there any way, short of repeatedly uninstalling and then reinstalling the toolbox, or else buying a second license and installing on a second computer (or the same computer with a different username), to temporarily make MATLAB think that it isn't available?
From the comments to the question, it appears the answer to my question is "no". Simply removing the path does not disable the toolbox. First of all, the toolbox is not in a single directory, it is in several (I had to rmpath 11 directories for Parallel Toolbox and I don't really know if I got them all).
Once that was done, typing in ver still shows that the Parallel Toolbox is installed. It also throws different errors, and so this method cannot be used to adequately test the behavior in my program. For instance, after I removed the directories, I get the following behavior:
>> n = gpuDeviceCount
Undefined function or variable 'gpuDeviceCount'.
but when I asked a friend, who does not have the parallel toolbox installed, to type in the same command, he got the following:
>> gpuDeviceCount
gpuDeviceCount is not included in your installed products. These products offer 'gpuDeviceCount':
Parallel Computing Toolbox
Different errors, different exceptions thrown. The second one is expected and if I could easily and deliberately throw that error, I could see what exception to test for in a try/catch block and behave appropriately. The first is unexpected and could happen for any number of reasons such as a corrupt install or a stupid typo on my part (e.g. with the paths added back, n = gpuDeviceCounts; still throws the first error).
I will submit a ticket to MathWorks and update the question if I hear back unless someone has another workaround.
916
Done.
I'll post this on the FEX, and after it's approved, I'll place a link to it here.
EDIT 1 they approved my submission, which can be found here or directly from my GitHub. I'll remove the code from this post. (actually, I'll leave it in, because that would turn the answer into a link-only reply, as rightfully remarked by Andy Clifton).
I've tested this only on R2010a, where it passes all my unit tests. But experience shows that MATLAB may do very different things from version to version, so if you find a problem, get a strange error, etc., please tell me, so I can make repairs.
For now, here's version 1.0:
% TOGGLETOOLBOX Utility to switch MATLAB toolboxes on or off.
%
% S = TOGGLETOOLBOX()
% S = TOGGLETOOLBOX('')
% S = TOGGLETOOLBOX('all') queries the on/off states of all installed
% toolboxes.
%
% M = TOGGLETOOLBOX('names') returns the full names / directory names map
% [M] applicable to the current MATLAB installation.
%
% S = TOGGLETOOLBOX(toolbox, state) queries or sets the on/off state of the
% MATLAB toolbox [toolbox] to [state]. The string or cellstring [toolbox] may
% be equal to the toolbox' installation directory name (the same as used by
% ver()), or the toolbox' full name. The string [state] may be one of 'on',
% 'off' or 'query'. The return argument [S] is a structure containing the
% toolbox name(s) as fields, with the on/off state represented as true/false.
%
% S = TOGGLETOOLBOX(..., permanency) for string [permanency] equal to
% 'permanent' will attempt to make the change persist between different
% MATLAB sessions. For [permanency] equal to 'temporary' (the default), the
% change will only last for the remainder of the current session.
%
% TOGGLETOOLBOX(S0) will reset the on/off states of all toolboxes to the
% states contained in [S0], where [S0] is a structure previously returned by
% TOGGLETOOLBOX() as outlined above.
%
% Disabling a toolbox is done by removing the relevant directories from the
% MATLAB path. Since the order of the path is important for name resolution,
% TOGGLETOOLBOX() attempts to keep the order of all paths as close to MATLAB's
% startup path as possible. Calling TOGGLETOOLBOX() multiple times for different
% toolboxes and arbitrary on/off states should not affect the overall path
% order -- calling TOGGLETOOLBOX('all', 'on') afterwards results in a path
% identical to the startup path.
%
% Note that TOGGLETOOLBOX() generates a MAT file for both performance and
% permanence between MATLAB sessions. Please make sure that TOGGLETOOLBOX()
% is located in a directory with write access.
%
%
% EXAMPLE SESSION:
%
% >> M = toggleToolbox('names')%
% M =
% 'aero' 'Aerospace Toolbox'
% 'aeroblks' 'Aerospace Blockset'
% 'bioinfo' 'Bioinformatics Toolbox'
% 'comm' 'Communications Toolbox'
% ...
%
% >> S = toggleToolbox({'Aerospace Toolbox' 'Wavelet Toolbox'}, 'query')
% S =
% aero: 1
% wavelet: 1
%
% >> w = ver('wavelet')
% w =
% Name: 'Wavelet Toolbox'
% Version: '4.5'
% Release: '(R2010a)'
% Date: '25-Jan-2010'
%
% >> S = toggleToolbox({'Aerospace Toolbox' 'Wavelet Toolbox'}, 'off');
% >> toggleToolbox({'Aerospace Toolbox' 'Wavelet Toolbox'}, 'query')
% ans =
% aero: 0
% wavelet: 0
%
% >> w = ver('wavelet')
% w =
% 0x0 struct array with fields:
% Name
% Version
% Release
% Date
%
% >> toggleToolbox(S);
% >> toggleToolbox({'Aerospace Toolbox' 'Wavelet Toolbox'}, 'query')
% ans =
% aero: 1
% wavelet: 1
%
% >> % Cross-platform developer mode:
% >> S = toggleToolbox('all', 'off');
%
% See also ver, verLessThan, matlabroot, warning.
function varargout = toggleToolbox(varargin)
%% Initialize
% ====================================================
% Default msg ID for error/warning messages
msgId = mfilename();
% Store toolbox states in a store file
storefile = fullfile(fileparts(mfilename('fullpath')), ...
'toolbox_states.mat');
% Names should be given as directory names, but who on Earth
% knows those by heart? Therefore, we create a dirname/fullname
% map, to allow users to enter the full toolbox name as well
tb_name_map = get_tb_name_map();
% Parse and check arguments to determine mode of operation
restoremode = false;
querymode = false;
toolbox = 'all';
state = 'on';
permanent = 'temporary';
switch nargin
case 0
% return states of ALL toolboxes
querymode = true;
case 1
% Reset states
if isstruct(varargin{1})
restoremode = true;
state = 'restore';
toolbox_states = varargin{1};
assert(nargout == 0,...
[msgId ':argoutcount_error'], ...
'%s for single input argument does not have any output arguments.',...
mfilename);
assert(isfield(toolbox_states, 'path') && ...
all(isfield(toolbox_states, tb_name_map(:,1))),...
[msgId ':invalid_tbstates_structure'], ...
'Input argument does not appear to be a structure generated by %s.',...
mfilename);
% Query state of single toolbox
elseif ischar(varargin{1})
% Return toolbox names map
if strcmpi(varargin{1}, 'names')
varargout{1} = tb_name_map;
return;
% query mode
else
querymode = true;
toolbox = varargin{1};
state = 'query';
end
end
case 2
% Toggle state of one or more toolboxes
toolbox = varargin{1};
state = varargin{2};
querymode = strcmpi(state, 'query');
case 3
toolbox = varargin{1};
state = varargin{2};
querymode = strcmpi(state, 'query');
if ~querymode
permanent = varargin{3};
else
warning([msgId ':permanence_na_in_querymode'],...
'Permanency flag ignored for ''query'' mode.');
end
otherwise
error([msgId ':argincount_error'],...
'Too many input arguments.');
end
% Cellstring of all paths makes for easier work
paths = regexp(path, pathsep, 'split');
% Initialize tb states structure
if ~restoremode
if exist(storefile,'file')==2
% Load previous paths and toggle states, if any
S = load(storefile);
toolbox_states = S.toolbox_states;
clear S;
else
% Otherwise, just initialize it by storing the previous
% path strings...
toolbox_states = struct('path', {paths});
% ...and mark all toolboxes as "enabled"
for ii = 1:size(tb_name_map,1)
toolbox_states.(tb_name_map{ii,1}) = true; end
end
end
% Some asserts
assert(iscellstr(toolbox) || ischar(toolbox),...
[msgId ':argument_error'], [...
'Toolboxes must be given as a string (single toolbox) or a cell array of ',...
'strings (multiple toolboxes).']);
if ~restoremode
assert(ischar(state) && any(strcmpi(state, {'on' 'off' 'query'})),...
[msgId ':argument_error'],...
'State must be a string equal to ''on'', ''off'' or ''query''.');
end
assert(ischar(permanent) && any(strcmpi(permanent, {'permanent', 'temporary'})),...
[msgId ':argument_error'],...
'Permanency must be indicated via string ''perpanent'' or ''temporary''.');
% Apply name map
if isempty(toolbox) || any(strcmpi(toolbox, 'all'))
toolbox = tb_name_map(:,1);
else
if ~iscell(toolbox)
toolbox = {toolbox}; end
% Check names and perform lookups
tb_name_map_i = cellfun(@lower, tb_name_map, 'UniformOutput', false);
toolbox_i = cellfun(@lower, toolbox, 'UniformOutput', false);
dirs = ismember(toolbox_i, tb_name_map_i(:,1));
[isname,names] = ismember(toolbox_i, tb_name_map_i(:,2));
assert(all(dirs | isname),...
[msgId ':unknown_toolbox'],...
'Toolbox: ''%s'' does not seem to be installed.',...
toolbox{find( ~(dirs | isname), 1, 'first')});
toolbox(isname) = tb_name_map(names(isname),1);
end
% Query mode: return current toggle states
if querymode
% ALL toolboxes
if isempty(toolbox)
save(storefile, 'toolbox_states');
%toolbox_states = rmfield(toolbox_states, 'path');
varargout{1} = toolbox_states;
% SOME toolboxes
else
for ii = 1:numel(toolbox)
toolbox_state.(toolbox{ii}) = toolbox_states.(toolbox{ii}); end
varargout{1} = toolbox_state;
end
return;
end
%% Toggle all requested toolboxes
% ====================================================
toolbox_states_out = toolbox_states;
switch lower(state)
case 'off'
for ii = 1:numel(toolbox)
tb = toolbox{ii};
if isfield(toolbox_states, tb) && ~toolbox_states.(tb)
warning([msgId ':toolbox_already_switched_off'],...
'Toolbox ''%s'' already switched off; ignoring.',...
tb);
else
% Remove whole toolbox from path
toolbox_states.(tb) = false;
inds = ~cellfun('isempty', strfind(paths, fullfile(matlabroot, 'toolbox', tb)));
rmpath(paths{inds});
end
end
case {'on' 'restore'}
switched = false;
for ii = 1:numel(toolbox)
tb = toolbox{ii};
if ~isfield(toolbox_states, toolbox{ii})
warning([msgId ':toolbox_not_switched_off'],...
'Toolbox ''%s'' was not switched off; ignoring.',...
tb);
else
switched = true;
end
% Just set toggle state
toolbox_states.(tb) = true;
end
% Preserve path order:
% - restore whole path
% - then re-disable relevant toolboxes
if switched
newPaths = ~ismember(paths, toolbox_states.path);
if ~any(newPaths)
% No new paths have been added
path( sprintf('%s;', toolbox_states.path{1:end-1}),...
toolbox_states.path{end} );
paths = toolbox_states.path;
else
% TODO: wouldn't it be better to "simply" merge the paths?
warning([msgId ':new_paths_added'],[ ...
'New directories have been added to the path between consecutive ',...
'''on''/''off'' calls to %s. The path will be restored to that prior to ',...
'the first ''off'' call to %s, which will effectively remove these ',...
'new directories from the path.'],...
mfilename, mfilename);
end
toolboxes = fieldnames(toolbox_states);
toolboxes = toolboxes(~strcmp(toolboxes, 'path'));
for jj = 1:numel(toolboxes)
tb = toolboxes{jj};
if ~toolbox_states.(tb)
inds = ~cellfun('isempty', strfind(paths, fullfile(matlabroot, 'toolbox', tb)));
rmpath(paths{inds});
end
end
end
end
%% Finish up
% ====================================================
% Save toggle states and previous paths
save(storefile, 'toolbox_states');
% Make changes permanent when requested
switch lower(permanent)
case 'temporary'
% noop; the default
case 'permanent'
savepath();
end
if ~restoremode
varargout{1} = toolbox_states_out; end
end
function tb_name_map = get_tb_name_map()
persistent tb_map
if isempty(tb_map)
disp('First call; collecting toolbox information. Please wait...');
% Cellstring of all paths makes for easier work
paths = regexp(path, pathsep, 'split');
% Get list of toolbox directory names
tbs = dir(fullfile(matlabroot, 'toolbox'));
tbs = tbs(3:end);
tb_dirnames = {tbs.name}';
% Get the full toolbox names
S(numel(tb_dirnames)) = struct('Name', '',...
'Version', '',...
'Release', '',...
'Date', '');
for ii = 1:numel(tb_dirnames)
tb_dirname = tb_dirnames{ii};
% Add toolbox (could have been removed from path, in which case
% ver() will not find it)
tb_dir = fullfile(matlabroot, 'toolbox', tb_dirname);
inds = ~cellfun('isempty', ...
strfind(paths, tb_dir));
if ~any(inds)
addpath(genpath(tb_dir)); end
% Get toolbox information via ver()
tb_version = ver(tb_dirname);
if ~isempty(tb_version)
S(ii) = tb_version; end
end
tb_fullnames = {S.Name}';
% Some dirs may not be toolboxes; slice those off
tb_slice = ~cellfun('isempty', tb_fullnames);
tb_fullnames = tb_fullnames(tb_slice);
tb_dirnames = tb_dirnames (tb_slice);
% Collect terms
tb_map = [tb_dirnames tb_fullnames];
% Reset path
path(sprintf('%s;', paths{1:end-1}), paths{end});
end
tb_name_map = tb_map;
end
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