Debian package for MATLAB

Description

Debian rules to generate a Debian package for MATLAB for amd64 architecture. The MATLAB offline installer corresponding to version in changelog has to be provided in installer_$VERSION/ to build the package.

The generated Debian package:

• installs MATLAB in /opt/matlab
• adds a link to matlab executable in /usr/bin
• adds icon and desktop menu entry in /usr/share
• adds license file if provided

A license file license.lic has to be provided to use MATLAB either next to the installer in order to be included in the package or need to be added in /opt/matlab/licenses/ after the package is installed. To use a network license server the license.lic is simply:

SERVER hostname-or-ip-of-license-server AAAAAAAAAAAA 27000
USE_SERVER

Inspired by MATLAB Arch Linux PKGBUILD.

Package build

1. Download the installer matlab_R*_glnxa64.zip from MATLAB website (note the update number) and unpack

2. Launch the installer, authenticate, and in Advanced Options select I want to download without installing

3. Select and download the products, the files are downloaded in $HOME/Downloads/MathWorks/R*/*

4. Define the downloaded version (with update patch):

    export VERSION=2022b3
   

5. Clone the git repository containing the packages rules in an empty directory:

    git clone -b ${VERSION:0:5} https://github.com/guillod/deb-matlab.git matlab-$VERSION
    cd matlab-$VERSION
   

6. Update the changelog to include patch revision if required with:

    dch -v $VERSION
   

7. Move all downloaded files into the installer_$VERSION/ directory:

    mkdir installer_$VERSION
    mv $HOME/Downloads/MathWorks/R${VERSION:0:5}/*/* installer_$VERSION/
   

8. Put the file installation key obtained from MATLAB in a fileInstallationKey file in the current directory.

9. Optionally, put a license.lic file (network license server) in the current directory in order to include it in the package.

10. Generate the package for example with:

    debuild --no-lintian -i -b -uc -us
    

    or sbuild (note you can speed up the creation of the source archive using --dpkg-source-opts="-Zgzip -z1").

Installation

Once generated, the package matlab_$VERSION_amd64.deb can be installed for example with:

sudo apt install ../matlab_$VERSION_amd64.deb

Contact

For comments, issues, bug-reports and requests, please use the issue tracker of the current repository. Otherwise the principal author can be reached at:

Julien Guillod
julien.guillod CHEZ sorbonne-universite.fr
https://guillod.org/
Department of Mathematics
Sorbonne University
France