More user-friendly procedure to avoid crash due to wrong libstdc++.so

[BenjaminRodenberg]

In our README.md we suggest the following procedure to start MATLAB, if version GLIBCXX_#.#.## is not found:

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 matlab

This follows the suggested approach from here.

I'm a bit unsure whether we should generally follow this procedure (assuming it is always or in most cases required) or rather treat it as pure troubleshooting (exceptional cases). I was a bit surprised that I actually do not need to set LD_PRELOAD on my system. Running the example case from precice/tutorials#480 worked for me without the need to set LD_PRELOAD.

There is also a list of supported gcc versions and this looks like we don't need to worry a lot. I would still suggest to keep the remark in the troubleshooting section, because I'm not a big fan of the fact that MATLAB brings along its own libstdc++.so and I assume this might lead to compatibility problems sooner or later.

I think it would be helpful to collect some data here in the comments and then decide what we should tell our users (and how to design the tutorials).

suggested format

• gcc version (gcc --version): ...
• MATLAB version (matlab -nodisplay -r "disp(version);exit;"): ...
• tutorial/solverdummy works without setting LD_PRELOAD: yes/no

Important: We should also check this for the VM.

[BenjaminRodenberg]

• gcc version (gcc --version): (Ubuntu 10.5.0-1ubuntu1~20.04) 10.5.0
• MATLAB version (matlab -nodisplay -r "disp(version);exit;"): 24.1.0.2537033 (R2024a)
• tutorials/resonant-circuit works without setting LD_PRELOAD: yes

[NiklasVin]

• gcc version (gcc --version): (Ubuntu 11.4.0-1ubuntu1~22.04) 11.4.0
• MATLAB version (matlab -nodisplay -r "disp(version);exit;"): 23.2.0.2515942 (R2023b) Update 7
• tutorials/resonant-circuit works without setting LD_PRELOAD: no

[BenjaminRodenberg]

• gcc version (gcc --version): (Ubuntu 10.5.0-1ubuntu1~20.04) 10.5.0
• MATLAB version (/usr/local/MATLAB/R2022b/bin/matlab -nodisplay -r "disp(version);exit;"): 9.13.0.2105380 (R2022b) Update 2
• tutorials/resonant-circuit works without setting LD_PRELOAD: yes

I also tried it out with an older MATLAB version on my system. This makes things even more confusing...

[BenjaminRodenberg]

• gcc version (gcc --version): (Ubuntu 10.5.0-1ubuntu1~20.04) 10.5.0
• MATLAB version (~/Software/MATLAB/R2023b/bin/matlab -nodisplay -r "disp(version);exit;"): 23.2.0.2515942 (R2023b) Update 7
• tutorials/resonant-circuit works without setting LD_PRELOAD: yes

Also no problems with MATLAB R2023b on my system. This is confusing for me considering what @NiklasVin reports above. Currently it looks like I cannot reproduce the problem.

[BenjaminRodenberg]

• gcc version (gcc --version): (Ubuntu 10.5.0-1ubuntu1~20.04) 10.5.0
• MATLAB version (~/Software/MATLAB/R2020b/bin/matlab -nodisplay -r "disp(version);exit;"): 9.9.0.2037887 (R2020b) Update 8
• tutorials/resonant-circuit works without setting LD_PRELOAD: no.

With R2020b I can reproduce the problem and get the following error:

Warning: The following error was caught while executing 'precice.Participant' class destructor:
Invalid MEX-file '/home/benjamin/Programming/matlab-bindings/+precice/@Participant/private/preciceGateway.mexa64': /home/benjamin/Software/MATLAB/R2020b/bin/glnxa64/../../sys/os/glnxa64/libstdc++.so.6: version `GLIBCXX_3.4.26' not found (required by /usr/local/lib/libprecice.so.3)

Error in precice.Participant/delete (line 40)
            preciceGateway(uint8(1));

Error in coil (line 4)
interface = precice.Participant("Coil", "../precice-config.xml", 0, 1); 
> In coil (line 4) 
Invalid MEX-file '/home/benjamin/Programming/matlab-bindings/+precice/@Participant/private/preciceGateway.mexa64': /home/benjamin/Software/MATLAB/R2020b/bin/glnxa64/../../sys/os/glnxa64/libstdc++.so.6: version `GLIBCXX_3.4.26' not found (required by /usr/local/lib/libprecice.so.3)

Error in precice.Participant (line 34)
            preciceGateway(uint8(0),ParticipantName,configFileName,int32(ProcessIndex),int32(ProcessSize));

Error in coil (line 4)
interface = precice.Participant("Coil", "../precice-config.xml", 0, 1);

[BenjaminRodenberg]

• gcc version (gcc --version): (Ubuntu 10.5.0-1ubuntu1~20.04) 10.5.0
• MATLAB version (~/Software/MATLAB/R2021b/bin/matlab -nodisplay -r "disp(version);exit;"): 9.11.0.2358333 (R2021b) Update 7
• tutorials/resonant-circuit works without setting LD_PRELOAD: no.

Warning: The following error was caught while executing 'precice.Participant' class destructor:
Invalid MEX-file '/home/benjamin/Programming/matlab-bindings/+precice/@Participant/private/preciceGateway.mexa64': /home/benjamin/Software/MATLAB/R2021b/bin/glnxa64/../../sys/os/glnxa64/libstdc++.so.6: version `GLIBCXX_3.4.26' not found (required by /usr/local/lib/libprecice.so.3)

Error in precice.Participant/delete (line 40)
            preciceGateway(uint8(1));

Error in coil (line 4)
interface = precice.Participant("Coil", "../precice-config.xml", 0, 1); 
> In coil (line 4) 
Invalid MEX-file '/home/benjamin/Programming/matlab-bindings/+precice/@Participant/private/preciceGateway.mexa64': /home/benjamin/Software/MATLAB/R2021b/bin/glnxa64/../../sys/os/glnxa64/libstdc++.so.6: version `GLIBCXX_3.4.26' not found (required by /usr/local/lib/libprecice.so.3)

Error in precice.Participant (line 34)
            preciceGateway(uint8(0),ParticipantName,configFileName,int32(ProcessIndex),int32(ProcessSize));

Error in coil (line 4)
interface = precice.Participant("Coil", "../precice-config.xml", 0, 1);

[BenjaminRodenberg]

I tried to find a bugfix or similar hinting in this direction in the changelogs of MATLAB, but could not find anything. Therefore, I asked a question in the MATLAB Community forum: https://de.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/2108031-has-issue-with-libstdc-so-6-been-fixed.

[NiklasVin]

• gcc version (gcc --version): (Ubuntu 11.4.0-1ubuntu1~22.04) 11.4.0
• MATLAB version (matlab -nodisplay -r "disp(version);exit;"): 24.1.0.2568132 (R2024a) Update 1
• tutorials/resonant-circuit works without setting LD_PRELOAD: no

[NiklasVin]

• gcc version (gcc --version): (Ubuntu 10.5.0-1ubuntu1~20.04) 10.5.0

  • MATLAB version (~/Software/MATLAB/R2023b/bin/matlab -nodisplay -r "disp(version);exit;"): 23.2.0.2515942 (R2023b) Update 7

  • tutorials/resonant-circuit works without setting LD_PRELOAD: yes

Also no problems with MATLAB R2023b on my system. This is confusing for me considering what @NiklasVin reports above. Currently it looks like I cannot reproduce the problem.

Were the MATLAB versions for which the resonant circuit example worked for you fresh installations?
I checked whether you got an answer to your question in the MATLAB forum. The answer links to another thread explaining two different solutions how to avoid the issues I encountered. The first one is with the LD_PRELOAD and the other ansatz is to rename one problematic library in the MATLAB installation path. Maybe you did the renaming for your working examples in advance? Because I reinstalled the newest MATLAB version and it didn't work without the LD_PRELOAD out of the box, but as soon as I renamed the mentioned file, everything worked fine without the preload.