MATLAB: File names with spaces used as command line arguments

filesystem

I am trying to run an external program with command line arguments. The syntax is like this:
bertini <inputFile> <startpointFile>
The problem is, if one of the files in the command line has a space in its name, I can't get it to work. For example, if commandStr = 'bertini paramotopy.input /Users/my folder/start', then
[status,result] = system(str)
returns an error because bertini thinks the startpoint file is /Users/my.
I have not been able to make any of the usual suggestions involving backslashes or double quotes work for this example. I need it to work for both Windows and Unix-based systems.
Comment added: Bertini is not a Matlab executable; it is an entirely separate product that was written in C. Unfortunately, I don't have the option of altering its code. Sorry for the misunderstanding – it didn't occur to me that people would assume this.

Best Answer

Try this, where I was trying to accept a foldername, that contained images, via the command line of a compiled executable:
if isdeployed && ~isempty(varargin)
  % For some reason, it won't take the command line as a single item, even if it's in double quotes.
  % It splits it up and gets rid of leading and trailing spaces so that
  % "D:\word1 word2\theUser\Images"
  % becomes 2 cells:
  % varargin{1} = "D:\word1 
  % varargin{2} = word2\theUser\Images"
  % We need to join all these together.
  numberOfCells = length(varargin);
  if numberOfCells >= 1
    commandLineArgument = varargin{1};
    for k = 2 : numberOfCells
      thisWord = varargin{k};
%         fprintf(1, 'varargin{%d} = %s\n', k, thisWord);
      commandLineArgument = sprintf('%s %s', commandLineArgument, thisWord);
    end
    % Get rid of any quotes.
    commandLineArgument = strrep(commandLineArgument, '"', []);
    fprintf(1, 'The argument passed in on the command line is %s\n', commandLineArgument);
%       msgboxw(['The argument passed in on the command line is ', commandLineArgument]);
    if exist(commandLineArgument, 'dir')
      % If this folder exists, use it.
      handles.imageFolder = commandLineArgument;
      fprintf(1, 'Changed image folder to this: %s\n', handles.imageFolder);
    else
      fprintf(1, 'This folder does not exist, so we cannot change to it:\n     %s\n', commandLineArgument);
    end
  end
  fprintf(1, 'handles.imageFolder = %s\n', handles.imageFolder);
end
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