MATLAB Programming

Operating System Compatibility
Operating System Compatibility
This section covers the following topics:
• “Executing O/S Commands from MATLAB” on page 12-53
• “Searching Text with grep” on page 12-53
• “Constructing Paths and Filenames” on page 12-53
• “Finding the MATLAB Root Directory” on page 12-54
• “Temporary Directories and Filenames” on page 12-54
Executing O/S Commands from MATLAB
To execute a command from your operating system prompt without having to
exit MATLAB, precede the command with the MATLAB ! operator.
OnWindows,youcanaddanampersand(&) totheendofthelinetomakethe
output appear in a separate window.
For more information: See Running External Programs in the MATLAB
Desktop Tools and Development Environment documentation, and the system
and dos function reference pages.
Searching Text with grep
grep is a powerful tool for performing text searches in files on UNIX systems.
To grep from within MATLAB, precede the command with an exclamation
point (!grep).
For example, to search for the word warning, ignoring case, in all M-files of
the current directory, you would use
!grep -i 'warning' *.m
Constructing Paths and Filenames
Use the fullfile function to construct path names and filenames rather
than entering them as strings into your programs. In this way, you always
get the correct path specification, regardless of which operating system you
areusingatthetime.
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