Build and Customize a Polyspace Test Docker Image

This repository shows you how to build and customize a Docker image for Polyspace Test™, using the MATLAB® Package Manager (mpm).

You can use this image as a scalable and reproducible method to run Polyspace Test command-line interfaces in containers.

Requirements

• A valid Polyspace Test license
• The port and host name of a Network License Manager or the path of a network.lic license file. See Use Network License Manager.
• Linux® Operating System
• Docker
• Git

Get Started

Get Sources and Build Docker Image

Use these commands to clone this repository and build the Docker image:

Note: If you use the demo files in the Run Docker Container example, uncomment one of these lines
# RUN apt-get install --no-install-recommends --yes gcc g++ (Ubuntu)
# RUN yum install --disableplugin=subscription-manager -y gcc gcc-c++ (UBI)
in the Dockerfile, or check that you add the correct dependencies if you use a different compiler.

# Clone this repository to your machine.
git clone https://github.com/mathworks-ref-arch/polyspace-test-dockerfile.git

# Navigate to the downloaded folder.
cd polyspace-test-dockerfile

# Select a base image for the container you want to build, for example, Ubuntu, and copy it to a Dockerfile.
cp Dockerfile.ubuntu24.04 Dockerfile

# Build container with a name and tag of your choice.
docker build . -t polyspace-test:r2025b

The build command looks for the Dockerfile in the current directory and builds an image with the name and tag specified by the -t option.

If you list the docker images and filter for polyspace* after the docker build command completes, you see the polyspace-test image.

$ docker images -f=reference=polyspace*
REPOSITORY       TAG       IMAGE ID       CREATED              SIZE
polyspace-test   r2025b    9fd4db81b09e   About a minute ago   5.94GB

Run Docker Container

After you build the image, you can start using Polyspace Test by creating and running containers from the image you built in the previous section. To create and run a container, see the docker run command.

For example, you can test your installation by running the script in the demo folder. The folder contains:

• A source file file.c which defines a function to test.
• A test file test.c which contains a test written using the Polyspace Test xUnit API.
• A script file demo_script.sh which performs these steps:
  1. Test registration, which generates a file that contains a registration function for the test and a main() function to call the test.
  2. Test building and running, which builds the test, generates a test runner, runs the test, and outputs the results in the terminal.

To run the demo example, enter these commands:

# Change permissions for demo folder
chmod 777 demo
cd demo
# Build container and run demo script
docker run --rm -v "$(pwd):/work" \
-e [email protected] \
polyspace-test:r2025b /work/demo_script.sh

After running the test, you see an output similar to this in the terminal:

| Running tests   |            |                      | 2023-10-06 17:01:08
|-----------------|------------|
| Running         | suite      | pst_default_suite
|-----------------|------------|
| Running         | test       | test_sum_correct
|            PASS | test       | test_sum_correct     | time: 0.000s
|-----------------|------------|
|            PASS | suite      | pst_default_suite    | time: 0.000s
|-----------------|------------|
|            DONE |            |                      | time: 0.000s

|        |  Total | Passed | Failed | Incomplete
|--------|--------|--------|--------|------------
| Suites |      1 |      1 |      0 |          0
|  Tests |      1 |      1 |      0 |          0

Docker automatically cleans up each container and removes its file system when that container exits (--rm option).

Customize Docker Image

The Dockerfile supports these Docker build-time variables.

Argument Name	Default value	Description
MATLAB_RELEASE	r2025b	The Polyspace Test release you want to install. Must be lower-case, for example: r2024b.
LICENSE_SERVER	unset	The port and hostname of the machine that is running the Network License Manager, using the port@hostname syntax. For example: 27000@MyServerName.

To customize the docker image, use these arguments with the docker build command or edit the default values of these arguments directly in the Dockerfile.

Examples

Specify License Server Information in Build Image

If you include the license manager information when you run the docker build command, you do not have to specify the MLM_LICENSE_FILE variable when you run the container using the docker run command.

# Build container and specify LICENSE_SERVER variable
docker build -t polyspace-test:r2025b --build-arg [email protected] .

# Run the container without specifying the MLM_LICENSE_FILE variable
docker run --rm -v "$(pwd):/work" \
polyspace-test:r2025b /work/demo_script.sh

Note: If you specify the value of the LICENSE_SERVER variable in the Dockerfile, you can omit it when running the docker build command.

Use Network License Manager

The Polyspace Test product uses a concurrent license which requires a Network License Manager to manage license checkouts.

To enable the container to communicate with the license manager, you must provide the port and hostname of the machine where you installed the license manager or the path to the network.lic file.

Obtain License Manager Information

Contact your license administrator to obtain the address of your license server, for instance:

[email protected], or the path to the network.lic file.

You can also get the license manager port and hostname from the SERVER line of the network.lic file or the license.dat file.

# Sample network.lic
SERVER MyServerName.example.com <optional-mac-address> 27000
USE_SERVER

# Snippet from sample license.dat
SERVER MyServerName.example.com <mac-address> 27000
...

Pass License Manager Information to build or run Commands

To pass the license manager address (portNumber@hostname) to the:

• docker build command, assign the address to the LICENSE_SERVER build variable.
• docker run command, assign the address to the MLM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable.

To use the network.lic file instead:

1. Copy the file to the same folder as the Dockerfile.

2. Uncomment the line COPY network.lic /opt/matlab/licenses/ in the Dockerfile.

   You do not need to specify the LICENSE_SERVER build variable when running the docker build command:

   # Example
   docker build -t polyspace-test:r2025b .

Remove Docker Image

While docker cleans up containers on exit, the docker image persists in your file system until you explicitly delete it. To delete a docker image, run the docker image rm command and specify the name of the container. For instance:

docker image rm polyspace-test:r2025b

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More MathWorks Docker Resources

• Explore prebuilt MATLAB Docker Containers on Docker Hub:
  • MATLAB Containers on Docker Hub hosts container images for multiple MATLAB releases.
  • MATLAB Deep Learning Container Docker Hub repository hosts container images with toolboxes suitable for deep learning.

Feedback

If you encounter a technical issue or have an enhancement request after trying this repository with your environment, create an issue here.

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Copyright (c) 2023-2025 The MathWorks, Inc. All rights reserved.

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