Add Folders to the MATLAB Search Path at Startup
There are two ways to add folders to the MATLAB® search path at startup. You can either use a startup.m
file or you can set the MATLABPATH
environment variable.
Use a startup.m
File
The startup.m
file is for specifying startup options. You can
add folders to the search path by including addpath
statements in
a startup.m
file. For example, to add the specified folder,
/home/
to the
search path at startup, include this statement in a username
/mytoolsstartup.m
file:
addpath /home/username/mytools
For more information on creating a startup.m
file with
addpath
statements, see Startup Options in MATLAB Startup File.
Set the MATLABPATH
Environment Variable
You can also add folders to the search path at startup by setting the
MATLABPATH
environment variable. :
Windows
To set the MATLABPATH
environment variable in Windows®, from the Windows
Control Panel, go to System and select
Advanced system settings. Click the
Environment Variables... button. Click
New... or Edit... to create or
edit the MATLABPATH
environment variable. In the dialog box
that appears, set the variable name to MATLABPATH
and the
variable value to a semicolon-separated list of folders you want to add to the
search path. For example, to add two folders,
c:\matlab_files\myfolder1
and
c:\matlab_files\myfolder2
, to the
MATLABPATH
environment variable, enter
c:\matlab_files\myfolder1;c:\matlab_files\myfolder2
as
the variable value. Click OK to set the variable and exit
the dialog box. Restart MATLAB for the new settings to take effect.
To set the environment variable from a command window, run the command
set MATLABPATH=
, where
folders
folders
is a semicolon-separated list of folders.
For example, suppose that you want to add two folders,
c:\matlab_files\myfolder1
and
c:\matlab_files\myfolder2
, to the
MATLABPATH
environment variable. Run the command
set MATLABPATH=c:\matlab_files\myfolder1;c:\matlab_files\myfolder2
Once the environment variable is set, you must start MATLAB from the same command window for the settings to take effect. The environment variable persists only as long as the command window is open.
UNIX and Mac
To set the MATLABPATH
environment variable in UNIX® and Mac, in a terminal, run the command export
MATLABPATH=
, where
folders
folders
is a colon-separated list of folders.
For example, suppose that you want to add two folders,
/home/j/Documents/MATLAB/mine
and
/home/j/Documents/MATLAB/research
, to the
MATLABPATH
environment variable on a UNIX platform. Run the command
export MATLABPATH=/home/j/Documents/MATLAB/mine:/home/j/Documents/MATLAB/research
Once the environment variable is set, you must start MATLAB from the same shell for the settings to take effect. The environment variable persists only as long as the shell remains open.
Note
If you are using a C shell (csh
or
tcsh
), the command for setting the
MATLABPATH
environment variable is setenv
MATLABPATH
.folders
To add the folders for all future MATLAB sessions, set the MATLABPATH
environment
variable as part of your shell configuration script.