Copyright (C) 2016-2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

February 22, 2026 · View on GitHub

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Copyright (C) 2016-2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

  • Emacs MATLAB-mode

[[https://mathworks.com][MathWorks]] MATLAB® and [[https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/][GNU Emacs]] integration:

  1. MATLAB mode, matlab-ts-mode or matlab-mode, for editing *.m files.

    • Edit MATLAB code with syntax highlighting, indentation (code formatting), and semantic movement.
    • Lint MATLAB code with fix-it's using the MATLAB Code Analyzer.

    The matlab-ts-mode is a more capable, performant, and accurate than matlab-mode.

  2. Code navigation and more

    • The [[file:doc/matlab-language-server-lsp-mode.org][MATLAB Language Server with Emacs]], matlabls, provides code navigation, code completion, go to definition, find references, and more.

    • Imenu support for quickly jumping to function declarations in the current *.m or *.tlc file. See [[file:doc/matlab-imenu.org][doc/matlab-imenu.org]].

  3. M-x matlab-shell for running and debugging MATLAB within Emacs (Unix only).

    • MATLAB command window errors are hyper-linked and files open in Emacs
    • Debugging support is available from the MATLAB menu.
    • matlab-shell uses company-mode for completions.

    See [[file:doc/matlab-shell-for-unix.org][doc/matlab-shell-for-unix.org]]

  4. M-x matlab-shell to run remote Unix MATLAB within your local Emacs session.

    #+begin_example +----------------+ +-----------------+ | Local Computer | | Remote Computer | | |<===============>| | | Emacs | ssh | MATLAB | +----------------+ +-----------------+ #+end_example

    You use Emacs on your local computer to edit files on the remote computer, run and debug remote MATLAB in a matlab-shell in your local Emacs. See [[file:doc/remote-matlab-shell.org][doc/remote-matlab-shell.org]].

  5. M-x matlab-netshell for running MATLAB code on Microsoft Windows within Emacs using an attached MATLAB.

    #+begin_example +--------------- Emacs ----------------+ +------------ MATLAB ------------+ | | | | | (1) M-x matlab-netshell-server-start | | (2) connect to Emacs | | |<=======>| >> addpath /toolbox | | (3) Visit script *.m files and use | | >> emacsinit | | "MATLAB -> Code Sections" menu | | >> | | or the key bindings | | | +--------------------------------------+ +----------------------------------+ #+end_example

  6. Code sections support for MATLAB script files. See [[file:doc/matlab-code-sections.org][doc/matlab-code-sections.org]].

    • After visiting a MATLAB script, you have a "MATLAB -> Code Sections" menu and key bindings which lets you navigate, run, and move code sections.

    • Try out code sections using: [[file:examples/matlab-sections/tryout_matlabsection.m][./examples/matlab-sections/tryout_matlabsection.m]].

  7. Creation of scientific papers, theses, and documents using MATLAB and [[http://orgmode.org]].

    • Org enables [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literate_programming][literate programming]] which directly supports reproducible research by allowing scientists and engineers to write code along with detailed explanations in natural language.

    • You author code plus natural language descriptive text in *.org files. When you evaluate MATLAB or other language code blocks within the *.org files, org inserts the results back into the *.org file.

    • You can combine multiple *.org files into one final document, thus enabling larger scientific documents.

    • See [[file:examples/matlab-and-org-mode][./examples/matlab-and-org-mode/]] to get started. This directory contains a [[file:examples/matlab-and-org-mode/matlab-and-org-mode.pdf][PDF]] generated from [[file:examples/matlab-and-org-mode/matlab-and-org-mode.org][./examples/matlab-and-org-mode/matlab-and-org-mode.org]].

  8. tlc-mode for editing *.tlc files. The Target Language Compiler (TLC) is part of Simulink® Coder™.

  • MATLAB Indent (Code Formatting)

With the optional matlab-ts-mode, you have [[file:doc/matlab_code_indent.org][MATLAB code indentation]] that

  • Adjusts the indent-level (the whitespace to the left of the code), and
  • Standardizes language element spacing, aligns consecutive statements, aligns matrices and structs, adds missing commas to matrices.

Example:

#+begin_src matlab function out= indent_example( in1, ... input2) % INDENT_EXAMPLE - an indent example % This illustrates some of the capabilities of the matlab-ts-mode indent engine.

    arguments
        in1          = 10
    input2= 20;
end

      mat = [100,2 300.2
                 3 400,4];

      s = struct(  'f1',1, ...
'otherField', in1+input2);

      a = 10; % comment for a
      bLongVariable = [1.3   2,3 1 - 1 -1]    ;% comment for b
      cVar = a+bLongVariable  * 2;          

 if abs(sum(in1)) > 0
          out=s.f1/input2+ in1 -cVar;
else
    out = mat+in1 * 2 -cVar;
    end
    end

#+end_src

Is indented to the following using C-x h and then ~C-M-~ (or Edit -> Select All, then M-x indent-region). Notice that in addition to adjusting the indent-level (whitespace to the left), language element spacing has been standardized, statements have been aligned, trailing comments have been aligned matrices have been aligned, missing comma's are added to arrays, struct fields are aligned, etc.

#+begin_src matlab function out = indent_example(in1, ... input2) % INDENT_EXAMPLE - an indent example % This illustrates some of the capabilities of the matlab-ts-mode indent engine.

    arguments
        in1    = 10
        input2 = 20;
    end

    mat = [100,   2, 300.2
             3, 400,     4];

    s = struct('f1',         1, ...
               'otherField', in1 + input2);

    a             = 10;                     % comment for a
    bLongVariable = [1.3, 2, 3, 1 - 1, -1]; % comment for b
    cVar          = a + bLongVariable * 2;

    if abs(sum(in1)) > 0
        out = s.f1 / input2 + in1 - cVar;
    else
        out = mat + in1 * 2 - cVar;
    end
end

#+end_src

  • Installation

  1. Install the MATLAB package via [[https://melpa.org][MELPA]] or [[https://elpa.gnu.org/][ELPA]]. MELPA contains the latest version. To install from MELPA, add to your =~/.emacs=

    #+begin_src emacs-lisp (require 'package) (add-to-list 'package-archives '("melpa" . "http://melpa.org/packages/") t) #+end_src

    Restart Emacs and then

    : M-x package-install RET matlab-mode RET

    Note: to see all available packages, =M-x RET list-packages RET=

  2. [Optional] Install the =company= package which is used for TAB completions.

    : M-x package-install RET company RET

  3. [Optional] Install MATLAB tree-sitter for matlab-ts-mode, which provides improved editing capabilities and improved performance.

    After installing =matlab-mode=

    : M-x matlab-ts-grammar-install

    The MATLAB tree-sitter leverages [[https://tree-sitter.github.io/tree-sitter/][Tree-sitter]] to create a parse tree for MATLAB code. The parse tree is updated incrementally and is robust to syntax errors. It is highly performant and achieves this by being implemented in C to create a shared object that is loaded into the Emacs process. matlab-ts-mode leverages the MATLAB tree-sitter to give an improved MATLAB editing experience when compared with matlab-mode.

    See [[file:doc/install-matlab-tree-sitter-grammar.org][doc/install-matlab-tree-sitter-grammar.org]]

  4. [Optional] Install lsp-mode and the [[file:doc/matlab-language-server-lsp-mode.org][MATLAB Language Server]] for an improved editing capabilities. Code navigation: jump to definition and back, find references, and rename symbols. Also provides improved MATLAB code analyzer (mlint) message interaction.

  5. [Optional] Check your installation setup.

    If you are using matlab-ts-mode, visit a =*.m= MATLAB file and select the menu item:

    : MATLAB -> Check setup

** Install from this repository

If you are contributing to the Emacs MATLAB Mode package, see [[file:contributing/install-emacs-matlab-from-git.org][contributing/install-emacs-matlab-from-git.org]]

Emacs MATLAB-mode is designed to be compatible with the last six years of MathWorks products and may support even older versions of MathWorks products.

  • License

GPL3, https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html (see [[file:License.txt][License.txt]])

  • Community Support

[[https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral][MATLAB Central]]

  • FAQ

See [[file:doc/faq.org][doc/faq.org]]

  • Mailing list

[[mailto:matlab-emacs-discuss@lists.sourceforge.net]]

https://sourceforge.net/projects/matlab-emacs/

  • Releases

See [[file:NEWS.org][NEWS.org]]

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