Sharing toolbox and/or installation between platforms / operating systems

Hi,

Matlab takes space, ideally in a Windows/Linux dual boot I would like to install as much of Matlab as possible just once, and still make it work from both OSes, as in putting those 10GB-15BG of toolboxes in a shared partition.

• Have you done it? If yes, how?
• Are the matlab toolboxes platform independent? More precisely, does Mathworks package different version of the same toolbox, or does the Matlab installer download the same package independently of the OS?
• Does matlab fiddle with the files in the toolboxes after installation differently depending on the OS?

More generally, are there any dirs in the matlabroot that stay OS independent forever?

For the packages I install manually, I know I could easily do this. So I am specifically asking about the ones installed by the matlab installer.

(I did search briefly for an answer, but I could not find any)

Thank you in advance.

Roberto

PS: I do use symbolic variables

Answer 1

[Ben Drebing]

Unfortunately, MATLAB and its toolboxes are all platform specific. The core parts of each will only work with the OS that was used to install them. The parts of MATLAB's toolboxes that aren't platform specific are their M-files. However, I think that you would only save a small amount of space by trying to share these files between installations. I imagine it wouldn't be worth the hassle of trying to set up MATLAB to share them.

Whenever I have to use MATLAB from a different boot, I just use MATLAB Online . This way, I can use MATLAB from whichever OS without reinstalling it. I would give that a try.

[Walter Roberson]

Most toolboxes come packaged as two bundles. One of the bundles is OS-specific files, and the other is shared files. However, these are not necessarily installed into distinct directories.