Visual Studio 2012 Compiler Update in Matlab - matlab

Question

The Visual Studio 2012 Compiler November 2012 CTP (VS2012+) gives access to new C++11 features. I would like to build mex files from Matlab 2013a using VS2012+; Matlab 2013a supports the ordinary VS2012. Is it possible to make Matlab 2013a build with VS2012+?
Visual Studio 2012 Compiler November 2012 CTP:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35515
Additional information:
In Visual Studio 2012, the compiler update is activated by going into project settings, and then choosing the platform toolset as "Microsoft Visual C++ Compiler Nov 2012 CTP (v120_CTP_Nov2012)". The default platform toolset is "Visual Studio 2012 (v110)". I would have expected to see this reflected in the compiler or linker switches, but I am unable to spot any differences. To key issue is then how to inform Visual Studio 2012 to do the same from the command line.

Answer 1

The Visual Studio 2012 Compiler Nov 2012 CTP is a separate executable, which is located at
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual C++ Compiler Nov 2012 CTP
The bin-subdirectory contains the cl.exe, which is the new compiler. A file with the same name exists at the Visual Studio 2012 installation directory. To make Matlab refer to the updated compiler, open (in a plain-text editor) the file
C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2013a\bin\win64\mexopts\msvc110opts.bat
and add the following just before the compiler parameters:
rem Override the compiler selection.
set COMPILERUPDATEDIR=C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual C++ Compiler Nov 2012 CTP
set PATH=%COMPILERUPDATEDIR%\bin\amd64;%COMPILERUPDATEDIR%\bin;%PATH%
This works since the cl.exe is searched from left to right in the PATH variable.
Local vs global options files
Note that the options-files in the mexopts directory are not directly used by Matlab; instead, they are taken local copies, and these are then used as the actual options files. When running
mex -setup
Matlab takes a local copy of the global options file, and places it in a directory which can be obtained by running mex with the -v option. This is the default options file. Therefore, if you are using the default options file, then you need to run mex -setup to see the changes.
Alternatively, you may want to take a local copy of the global options file yourself, and then specify the options file by the -f option in mex. This way you don't need to modify the official options files.