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Matlab

The School has a number of floating licences for Matlab, and a small number of licences for additional toolboxes.

The program is available on most linux machines within the School, including burn a.k.a. nx.geos.ed.ac.uk

Whose Using Matlab?

Pressure on licences waxes and wanes, but it is always polite to exit Matlab if you are not using it. You can see how many licenses are available just now, or by running the command matlab_users.

Adding directories to your matlab path

When you issue a command in matlab, it searches a number of built-in directories. If you wish to permanently add a directory to this set, there are two simple options.

  • Use the environment variable MATLABPATH
    • Edit the file ~/.bashrc
    • Add a line such as export MATLABPATH=/some/useful/matlab/programs
  • Use the addpath command in startup.m as described below.

Changing startup behaviour

If you wish to have commands executed every time you start Matlab:
  • If necessary, create a directory called matlab in your home directory:
    • mkdir ~/matlab
  • within that directory create a file called startup.m
  • Commands added to that file will be executed at each matlab startup.

Useful commands might include: addpath /some/useful/matlab/programs

Costs

As of 2011 the current costings for matlab can be found here: ITC Oct 2011. See Views and news from PhD students/TC asks how Matlab charging works. However the thresholds are not hard and fast but are flexible. The intention is to get the cost of the licenses back from the users. Last year there was much heavier use and the thresholds were quite different. It is important to make the point clear: it will not always be 20mins or 1 hour.
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