Multithreaded C++ application using Matlab Engine

Question

I open Matlab engine in an initialization thread, doing :

bool MY_MATLAB_ENGINE_o::Open()
{
    // Handle the case where engine is already open
    if( MatlabEngine )
    {
        return true;
    }
    else if( !( MatlabEngine = engOpen( 0 ) ) )
    {
        return false;
    }

    IsEngineOpen.SetValue( true );
    return true;
}

Function engOpen() opens a COM channel to Matlab. Once the engine is open, the thread falls in wait event mode.

Then, in another thread, I do this :

bool MY_MATLAB_ENGINE_o::ChangeDirectory( QString strPath )
{
    QString strPathToScript = "cd('" + strPath + "');";

    QByteArray ba = strPathToScript.toLatin1();
    const char* cPathToScript = ba.data(); 

    if( MatlabEngine )
    {
        engEvalString( MatlabEngine, cPathToScript );

        return true;
    }

    return false;
}

I get a CoInitialize has not been called first-chance exception on engEvalString( MatlabEngine, cPathToScript ); which seems to tell me that Matlab COM server isn't available (but Matlab engine is still up and running).

When I put everything in the same thread it works fine though, but that's not the kind of design I had in mind.

I find Matlab engine documentation lack information about engine+COM. Any idea how to have engine initialization and function calls in separated threads ?

Thanks !

EDIT following RobH's answer

I added this method to my class (instantiated in the second thread) :

bool MY_MATLAB_FUNCTION_CALL_o::PostThreadCreationHook()
{
    HRESULT hr;
    hr = CoInitializeEx(0, COINIT_MULTITHREADED); 
    if (FAILED(hr)) 
    { 
        return false;
    }

    return true;
}

And now when I call engEvalString( MatlabEngine, cPathToScript ); I get The application called an interface that was marshalled for a different thread first-chance exception :) I have so much fun this morning ! :)

So, CoMarshalInterface() ?

Answer 1

CoInitialize has to be called from every thread where you use a COM object, not just the main thread.

It has been a decade since I last automated Matlab, so excuse rustiness in what follows. That you have received the CoInitialize error suggests that the engOpen call wraps underlying COM calls. Unfortunately, this exposes you unawares to the can of worms that is COM. I guess you are right and that engOpen includes a call to CoInitialize, which initialises the COM library on the current thread. To access COM objects from a thread CoInitialize must always have been called on that thread before any calls to COM (other than one permitted COM function, I forget which.)

My advice is to isolate all of your Matlab calls onto one thread now. If you do that you won't have to make the explicit CoInitialize call, and you avoid any later multithreaded COM issues. You might get your program working today by calling CoInitialize on the second thread but one day you'll be bitten by another COM problem.

[I spent about a decade elbows-deep on COM and it is full of bear traps. You could spend a few weeks reading up on a technology which Microsoft tried to hide / kill with .Net, but it is better just to take the easy (single-thread) path now and forget about it.]

Update I'm afraid your edit has tripped you into the mire of COM threading models. COINIT_MULTITHREADED effectively tells COM that you're going to take care of all of the little nuances of threading, which is almost certainly not what you want to do. COM operates with several (last time I paid attention it was three) threading models and the parameter you pass to CoInitializeEx declares which of those models you wish to use.

Apologies to all if what follows is slightly off.

If you specify COINIT_MULTITHREADED you need to either know that the COM object you are calling is thread-safe or do the appropriate locking (and marshalling of interfaces and data between threads) yourself.

COINIT_APARTMENTTHREADED, which is probably what engOpen uses as in my experience it's the most common, lets the COM library deal with multithreading for you. The library may, for instance, create proxy and stub objects to mediate calls across threads (or process boundaries, which is what will happen when you call to Matlab.)

engOpen created a Matlab proxy object on your main thread. This proxy object can be called from the thread where it was created and, if I recall correctly, from any other thread in the 'apartment' (where CoInitializeEx has been called with COINIT_APARTMENTTHREADED.) You have tried to call through the proxy from a thread in a different threading model, the COM library has noticed, and has issued the error you mention.

In many ways COM is amazing, but the intricacies are a pain in the arse. Be thankful you are never likely to have to use Distributed COM, which is truly nasty!

Update 2 My ancient memory of COM threading models is wrong. This MSDN page states that there is one thread per apartment with COINIT_APARTMENTTHREADED. COM objects can be accessed using the same interface pointer from all threads in the apartment where they were created. For COINIT_APARTMENTTHREADED that means just the thread where the object was created. In COINIT_MULTITHREADED that would be all the threads in the multithreaded apartment but (1) you don't get to choose which thread the Matlab engine is created on if you use engOpen and (2) trying to call a COM object that you didn't write from a multithreaded apartment is risky. The original OLE threading model only allowed COM calls from the main GUI thread, BTW.