Matlab Package Manager (mpm)

A simple package manager for Matlab (inspired by pip). Downloads packages from Matlab Central's File Exchange, GitHub repositories, or any other url pointing to a .zip file.

Quickstart

Download/clone this repo and add it to your Matlab path (using addpath). Now try the following:

• mpm install [package-name]: install package by name
• mpm uninstall [package-name]: remove package, if installed
• mpm search [package-name]: search for package given name (checks Github and Matlab File Exchange)
• mpm freeze: lists all packages currently installed
• mpm init: adds all installed packages to path (run when Matlab starts up)

More details

Install a single package

Install (searches FileExchange and Github):

>> mpm install export_fig

When installing, mpm checks for a file in the package called install.m, which it will run after confirming (or add --force to auto-confirm). It also checks for a file called pathlist.m which tells it which paths (if any) to add.

Install a Github release (by tag, branch, or commit)

By tag:

>> mpm install matlab2tikz -t 1.0.0

By branch:

>> mpm install matlab2tikz -t develop

By commit:

>> mpm install matlab2tikz -t ca56d9f

Uninstall

>> mpm uninstall matlab2tikz

When uninstalling, mpm checks for a file in the package called uninstall.m, which it will run after confirming (or add --force to auto-confirm).

Search without installing:

>> mpm search export_fig

Install from a url:

>> mpm install covidx -u https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/76213-covidx

OR:

>> mpm install export_fig -u https://github.com/altmany/export_fig.git

(Note that when specifying Github repo urls you must add the '.git' to the url.)

Install local package:

>> mpm install my_package -u path/to/package --local

The above will copy path/to/package into the default install directory. To skip the copy, add -e to the above command.

Overwrite existing packages:

>> mpm install matlab2tikz --force

Install/uninstall packages in a specific directory:

>> mpm install matlab2tikz -d /Users/mobeets/mypath

Note that the default installation directory is mpm-packages/.

Environments ("Collections")

mpm has rudimentary support for managing collections of packages. To specify which collection to act on, use -c [collection_name]. Default collection is "default".

>> mpm install cbrewer -c test
Using collection "test"
Collecting 'cbrewer'...
   Found url: https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/58350-cbrewer2?download=true
   Downloading https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/58350-cbrewer2?download=true...
>> mpm init -c test
Using collection "test"
   Adding to path: /Users/mobeets/code/mpm/mpm-packages/mpm-collections/test/cbrewer
   Added paths for 1 package(s).

Installing multiple packages from file

>> mpm install -i /Users/mobeets/example/requirements.txt

Specifying a requirements file lets you install or search for multiple packages at once. See 'requirements-example.txt' for an example. Make sure to provide an absolute path to the file!

To automatically confirm installation without being prompted, set --approve. Note that this is only available when installing packages from file.

What it does

By default, mpm installs all Matlab packages to the directory mpm-packages/. (You can edit mpm_config.m to specify a custom default installation directory.)

If you restart Matlab, you'll want to run mpm init to re-add all the folders in the installation directory to your Matlab path. Better yet, just run mpm init from your Matlab startup script.

Troubleshooting

Because there's no standard directory structure for a Matlab package, automatically adding paths can get a bit messy. When mpm downloads a package, it adds a single folder within that package to your Matlab path. If there are no *.m files in the package's base directory, it looks in folders called 'bin', 'src', 'lib', or 'code' instead. You can specify the name of an internal directory by passing in an -n or internaldir argument. To install a package without modifying any paths, set --nopaths. Or to add all subfolders in a package to the path, set --allpaths.

Mpm keeps track of the packages it's downloaded in a file called mpm.mat, within each installation directory.