MATLAB: Do RMDIR and DELETE not work correctly with symbolic links in MATLAB 7.0 (R14)

Question

RMDIR and DELETE cannot be used to delete a symbolic link within MATLAB 7.0 (R14). For a symbolic link, 'root', to a directory '/home/username/test', the following code:

delete root

produces the following warning:

 Warning: 'root' is a directory. Use rmdir to delete directories.

and

rmdir root

produces the following:

 Warning: Directory /home/username/test could not be removed. 
 If it is not empty, use rmdir with 's' option. 
 ??? Error using ==> rmdir 
 No directories were removed.

Answer 1

We have verified that there is a bug in MATLAB 7.0 (R14) that affects the way RMDIR and DELETE handle symbolic links. To work around this issue, use the system command 'unlink' or 'rm' to remove a symbolic link. This can be done from MATLAB using the following:

!unlink root

or

!rm root