License files from the FEX
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FEX submissions are accompanied by a file called "license.txt", which contains the name of the author. You can copy the files of a submission to a specific folder and include if in the Matlab path.
When a user downloads 100 submissions, there are two methods:
- Either 100 folders are added to the path. This increases the danger of getting the strange and frequent "exhausted change notification handles" problems, see Solution 1-18IFI.
- Save the functions to one folder and overwrite the license files. This does collide with the BSD license conditions.
Especially when I think about a tool, which automatically resolves dependencies to other FEX submissions, the pile of equivocal license files is a tedious obstacle. How can this problem be solved considering the large number of already existing submissions?
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Accepted Answer
Daniel Shub
on 19 Jun 2012
You could download each FEX submission to a separate folder and then create links (hard or symbolic) to the MATLAB files (m, p, mex, etc.) in a single common folder for all FEX submissions. This might cause problems with name collisions to common files (e.g., contents.m).
More Answers (2)
Jan
on 20 Jun 2012
3 Comments
Steven Lord
on 28 Jun 2018
Consider using the Add-On Explorer to have MATLAB download and manage add-ons. If you do this, I believe it puts each in a separate directory to avoid potential conflicts like the license.txt files.
Malcolm Lidierth
on 22 May 2013
@Jan
I find lots of "installation procedure" enquiries also even though clear install instructions are provided. Often that is because users have read "between-the-lines" instead of taking the instructions literally - and their interpretation can be understandable e.g I see how a 10 year old caveat that "you must use "save -v6" might be interpreted as use "save -v[6 or 7]" in 2013.
For Waterloo, which has many files/folders/classes, I wrote a short script that uses MATLAB to do the download, unzip the files and set up the MATLAB and Java path - providing a few command line prompts/questions - in the present context that might be e.g "Have you run mex -setup before? If not do you want to run it now? [y/N]:"
Maybe the FEX should include an o[tional "Installation Script" button as well as a "Download Button" - providing script code to cut-and-paste into the Command Window when clicked, that could do this.
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