Why do I get a warning "Name is nonexistent or not a directory" about the Editor_vxdxq folder?

After installing R2020a PreRelease I get the following warning in the MATLAB Command Window on startup:

Warning: Name is nonexistent or not a directory:
C:\Users\<my username>\AppData\Local\Temp\Editor_vxdxq

Additional notes:

1) This warning does not appear in MATLAB R2019a.

2) Furthermore, when I navigate to "C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\" I do not see the "Editor_vxdxq" folder when MATLAB R2020a is closed (or when R2019a is open). This file appears as soon as R2020a is open.

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

The warning that you are seeing, as well as the automatic generation of the Editor_vxdxq folder is an expected behavior. Essentially, this folder gets automatically created in the background by the Live Editor in MATLAB. When we open MATLAB R2020a this file gets created, if we call the "savepath" command after this, the folder will be saved to the path but it might not exist in the future when the path is reloaded again (hence you see the warning). That being said, there is no concern with the warning itself as the generation of this folder is handled by MATLAB. We have two options to resolve the warning:

1) Remove the "Editor_vxdxq" folder from the path and save it:

• Open MATLAB
• Enter the following command in the MATLAB Command Window:

>> pathtool

• Use the Set Path dialog box to remove Editor_vxdxq folder from the path and click "Save"
• On the MATLAB Command Window, enter

>> savepath

After this you should not get the warning, and can ignore the generation of this file. Since this folder was meant to be temporary, removing it from the MATLAB path should not result in any unexpected side effects in the current MATLAB session. Should you need to save the search path again in the future, make sure to remove the temporary directory again if it appears before saving.

2) You can manually turn the warning off with the following command:

>> warning('off', 'MATLAB:mpath:nameNonexistentOrNotADirectory')

One thing to note is that we generally recommend against using the "savepath" command (unless advised by the MathWorks staff as part of a troubleshooting step) as it can have some serious consequences if an unintended file gets added to the path. To add additional items to the path, we recommend to instead use the "addpath()" command in the "startup.m" file. For more information, please see the following link:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/startup.html

[Christos Stefanakos]

I followed your instructions in No.1 (delete from the path), but I still get the warning every time I start MATLAB!

I don't understand what exactly you meant by writing that this "is an expected behavior" in a new modern version !!!!!!!!!! I was expecting that ver.2020 should be more developed (warning free) than the previous one and not vice versa !

Do you plan to fix this annoying behavior or, since it "is an expected behavior", we have to live with that ??

[Qian lix]

the first methond is only a temporarily effective....in fact the folder"Editor_vxdxq" can still automatically refresh in the disk on pc when R2020a running.

even after add and save a new folder to the path,it also show in the path window.

Unless I delete the folder again, the warning about"Editor_vxdxq" appears again!!

[Amir]

Pls advice on a permanent solution to this annoying problem - I do NOT want to see this warning every time I start matlab 2020a

[adams13]

For me it looks like a mistake of the live script team during play with "path" variables.

The directory gets created during matlab start and deleted during shutdown. The directory was 'Editor' up to Matlab R2019b and 'Editor_vxdxq' starting from Matlab R2020a.

Starting from R2020a, they add this directory to a "path" (one can see it e.g. with 'pathtool'). If the user uses the path as intended, he (she) changes it and saves it. This way, the added 'Editor_vxdxq' gets saved. If it is on the list on the next startup (before the directory was created), the warning appeared.

The problem is that the developers add something to "path" on each start that should not be there. If the user just opens the path and saves it _without_any_changes_, the behavior changes.

Expected behavior: do not add 'Editor_vxdxq' to the path. It is not needed. When I delete it from the path everything works.

[Walter Roberson]

I believe that the path item is required for live editor to be able to process one section at a time. There is no actual internal mechanism for executing starting and ending at particular locations: instead the matlab code for the section is copied to a temporary file and the file run as a script.

[Image Analyst]

Amir, the permanent solution is to put

warning('off', 'MATLAB:mpath:nameNonexistentOrNotADirectory');

into your startup.m file.

>> edit startup.m

Then add that line of code and save it.

[Miguel Fadrique Ruano]

Is this the same issue of the warning (Editor_enyex file)?:

Warning: Name is nonexistent or not a directory: C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Temp\Editor_enyex

[Eric]

And also "Editor_ipcbe"?

Warning: Name is nonexistent or not a directory: C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Temp\Editor_ipcbe

[Walter Roberson]

Yes. C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Temp\Editor_ followed by 5 letters is Live Script stuff.

Answer 2

[Albert Bing]

Here is my solution.

In your startup.m file, add several lines as following

paths=path;
editors=regexpi(paths, 'C:[^;]*Editor_[^;]*', 'match');%search C:\Users\<name>\*\Editor_*
for i=1:numel(editors)
    rmpath(editors{i});
end
clear;

If you don't have or don't know the startup.m file, just create a startup.m file in C:\Users\<your-name>\Documents\MATLAB.

The idea is to find the Editor_* path, and remove it when MATLAB starts.

The regular expression could be more precise like C:\Users\<your-name>\AppData\Local\Temp\Editor_\w*(?=;)

[CD_778]

I follow you instructions but those lines are not executed in startup.m.

It's not clear for me why, this is my startup file:

paths=path;

editors=regexpi(paths, 'C:[^;]*Editor_[^;]*', 'match');%search C:\Users\<name>\*\Editor_*

for i=1:numel(editors)

rmpath(editors{i});

disp('temp folder clear');

savepath;

end

%clear;

run('C:\Dati\Eltbox\polarion-Simulink/startup.m');

setenv('USER','USER000');

It seems that the script is executed only after the command "run('C:\Dati\Eltbox\polarion-Simulink/startup.m');"

Then, I also have noticed that gui "set path" on matlab interface displays different path from pathdef.m.

For this reason even if I remove tmp dir from path it still remain into file pathdef.m

Are there any other suggestions to remove tmp folder from pathef.m at matlab startup?

Answer 3

[Mark Qu]

I just started with MatLab today, a few minutes ago, so maybe this is not correct, but to deal with this problem in Linux I launched MatLab as the root (Administrator in Windows I suppose) user & deleted it from within the MatLab GUI's 'Set Path' menu bar option & saved it, then exited MatLab & restarted it as regular user. The warning went away.

[Image Analyst]

Mark, yes that is correct. In fact, it's the very same thing the Answer above told you to do. However, root or administrator privilege should not be required.

Answer 4

[Nathan Kando]

I got this issue because in startup.m,

I used a combination of the commands:

• mfilename

• addpath

• savepath

for the startup file to add itself to the path permanently.

BUT!

When I was testing startup.m,

I used CTRL+Enter to 'evaluate selection' rather than 'run'.

Evaluate selection runs the code from a temporary location;

thus mfilename provides the temporary path to addpath,

which then gets then saved by savepath,

so during the next session you'll see the warning

about the temp path being in the path listings.

[Image Analyst]

Seems like you would have got an error about addpath() missing input arguments since it requires a folder name.

[Nathan Kando]

That's just a list of the commands involved, not the exact code. Mathworks took my inline code formatting and grouped it..

[Nathan Kando]

Cleaned it up : j