How to modify the MATLABPATH variable
The MATLABPATH variable is set in the Matlab script to include all the
Matlab Toolbox directories and some local contrib directories. Also
included is the directory ~/matlab if it exists.
There are 3 ways to modify the MATLABPATH:
a) Command line -- for adding directories to the MATLABPATH ( the
list of directories Matlab searchs for .m and .mat files) at
run time, you can do
add matlab
matlab /dir1 /dir2 /dir3
The Matlab startup script will append /dir1 /dir2 and /dir3
to MATLABPATH if the directories exist.
Key feature to this method is that the directories added
appear after the default MATLABPATH. This method is
b) Environment variable -- If the environment variable
MATLABPATH is set when you start Matlab, the directories
in MATLABPATH are prepended to the default MATLABPATH.
Since the current working directory is always searched
before MATLABPATH, it is not necessary to include '.' in
the MATLABPATH variable.
Key feature to this method is that added directories appear
before the Matlab toolboxes. Also, there is no error checking
at start up to see if the directories exist.
c) Inside Matlab -- Once you have started Matlab or on startup, if
you need more options that provided above, you can use the
Matlab "addpath" or "path" commands.
The "addpath" command allows you to choose between prepending
(default) or appending directories to the path.
>> addpath /dir1 /dir2 /dir3 % prepends directories to path
>> addpath /dir1 /dir2 /dir3 -end % appends directories to path
The "path" command can be used to modify the path using strings. For
example:
>> p = path; % this gets current path
>> path(p,'/usr/users/work') % this appends the directory
% /usr/users/work to MATLABPATH
>> path('/usr/users/thesis',p) % this prepends the directory
% /usr/users/thesis to MATLABPATH
If you want a specialized path every time you start Matlab, here is
what you would do:
1. If you do not have a ~/matlab directory, create one.
2. In that directory, create a file startup.m, that contains
the desired "addpath" or "path" commands. Matlab checks
for this file each time it starts up. If it exists, it is
executed automatically.
Key feature for this method is that you are not restricted to
either appending or prepending to MATLABPATH. You can use the full
programming facilities of Matlab to build a custom search path.
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