MATLAB: Do the LS and ! (bang) commands not work in MATLAB 7.7 (R2008b) when the $MATLAB_SHELL environment variable is set

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I have the environment variable $MATLAB_ROOT set to 'bash', and when I try to run the LS command in MATLAB I get the following error message.

 ??? Error using ==> ls at 38

Similarly, shelling out commands with the bang operator (!) do not work.

Best Answer

If you would like to set the $MATLAB_SHELL then it must be set with an absolute path. For instance if, outside of MATLAB, you get the following result:

 > which bash
 /bin/bash

Then $MATLAB_SHELL should be set to /bin/bash, not simply bash.

Related Solutions

MATLAB: Does the MATLAB desktop and/or MATLAB figures not appear when starting MATLAB from the terminal application on Mac OS

The MATLAB desktop and figures will not appear when started from terminal application (such as OroborOSX) unless the DISPLAY is set.

Here are two ways to correct this:

1) From the system prompt, set the $DISPLAY environment variable:

setenv DISPLAY :0.0                                                        
matlab

2)Set the DISPLAY as you start MATLAB:

matlab -display :0.0

MATLAB: How to modify the SYSTEM command or ! (bang) operator in MATLAB

MATLAB makes operating system calls through the functions SYSTEM, UNIX and DOS and also by using the ! (bang) operator. These are all built-in functions.

You can overload a built-in function by creating a MATLAB function with the same name which is higher in the MATLAB search path. Then from within that file you can call the built-in function using the BUILTIN function. In this way you can overload a function like SYSTEM.

For example, if you want to prepend the command pbs_attach to all calls made with the system command, you can create a file called "system.m" which contains the following code:

function [s,w] = system( cmd )
prefix = 'echo ';
if nargout == 2
    [s,w] = builtin( 'system', [prefix cmd] );
else
    s = builtin( 'system', [prefix cmd] );
end

You then need to make sure that this file is in a directory which is higher on the MATLAB path than $MATLABROOT\toolbox\matlab\general\ (where $MATLABROOT is the MATLAB root directory on your machine, as returned by typing:

matlabroot

at the MATLAB command prompt.)

To do this, you can put this file in any directory and use the ADDPATH and SAVEPATH commands in MATLAB or the Set Path dialog box to modify the path. For more information on the MATLAB path see the following web page:

Search Path :: Workspace, Search Path, and File Operations (Desktop Tools and Development Environment)

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/search-path.html

To ensure that all system commands go through your functions, you will need to create files with the names "system.m", "unix.m", and "dos.m".

It is also possible to overload the ! (bang) operator by creating a file called "!.m" and having this file be before the directory $MATLABROOT\toolbox\matlab\general in the MATLAB search path. However, the ! (bang) operator is considered punctuation by the MATLAB language and this behavior may change without notice in future releases of MATLAB.

Please note that when you create a file which overloads a MATLAB built-in function, a warning message is displayed. These warning messages will be displayed whenever these files are in your current directory.\n

Warning: Function T:\1-3S35CL\unix.m has the same name as a MATLAB builtin.
We suggest you rename the function to avoid a potential name conflict.
Warning: Function T:\1-3S35CL\dos.m has the same name as a MATLAB builtin.
We suggest you rename the function to avoid a potential name conflict.
Warning: Function T:\1-3S35CL\system.m has the same name as a MATLAB builtin.
We suggest you rename the function to avoid a potential name conflict.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MATLAB: Does the MATLAB desktop and/or MATLAB figures not appear when starting MATLAB from the terminal application on Mac OS

MATLAB: How to modify the SYSTEM command or ! (bang) operator in MATLAB

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