Why does MATLAB R2016b crash with no dialog after loading a custom DLL with "loadlibrary"?

I am using the function "loadlibrary" to load a DLL compiled from custom C code into MATLAB R2016b. When I call a function from this DLL, causing a crash in the DLL, MATLAB also crashes without any dialog and with no generated crash dump.

Why does this occur and is it expected behavior?

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

This is expected behavior. MATLAB cannot guarantee a crash dialog or crash dumps when the crash originates from a third-party shared library, which is loaded in-process via "loadlibrary." This is because the DLL shares MATLAB's process space. Therefore, if the DLL corrupts memory or hits a Segmentation Fault, MATLAB cannot recover or log the crash.

We recommend upgrading to a later MATLAB release for improved crash handling and for techniques such as Out-of-Process Execution Mode, which can isolate a third-party library bug or version skew. For example, later versions exhibit better isolation and crash handling with the C++ interface "clibgen," which supports out-of-process execution.