Why does running a MEX file on MacOS crash MATLAB when mexerrmsgtxt is used?

Passing an error message back from a MEX file using mexerrmsgtxt from FORTRAN crashes MATLAB completely. I observed the same problems with R2014b and R2016a. I can only replicate the latter one because I have a current version of Xcode. Below is a stripped down version of a MEX function that does nothing but return an error message, and yet still crashes.

I am currently running OS X 10.11.6, Xcode fully updated, MATLAB R2016a freshly installed. I had the same problem a year ago with an older version of OS X and R2014b. The formatted text for some reason puts the #include statement outside of the formatted text, but it is the first line of the file.

Compiled within MATLAB using mex crasher.F

#include "fintrf.h"

      SUBROUTINE MEXFUNCTION(NLHS, PLHS, NRHS, PRHS)

      mwPointer PLHS(*), PRHS(*)
      integer   NLHS, NRHS
C

      call mexerrmsgtxt('Exiting at entry')
c
      return
      end

[Jeff Freymueller]

Note that when I call the function, I'm giving it no arguments.

Answer 1

[Philip Borghesani]

What FORTRAN compiler and version are you using? The only supported compiler I see is Intel FORTRAN Composer XE (2013) Supported Compilers. The reason for the limited list is a known incompatibility in exception handling models for other compilers: Any error thrown during mex execution may take down MATLAB.

[Jeff Freymueller]

gfortran, which I now see has disappeared from the supported list. (It was on the list for 2014b, which had the same failure).

However, despite fortran supposedly not being supported, when I ran

mex --setup FORTRAN

MATLAB claimed that it had identified a compiler and was set up to use it. So there was no warning that it was trying to use an unsupported compiler.