Does Matlab system call wait for the operation to finish before continuing with the script?

I have a script where I am making system calls such as:

cmd = 'tar -xvf filename.tar';
system(cmd);

My question is, once Matlab has started the system call, does it continue on with the Matlab script immediately or does it wait for the system call to finish outside Matlab before continuing on with the script?

Thanks in advance! James

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

It waits for the process. However if the process starts a subprocess and then exits, it will not wait for the subprocess. So if you do not want it to wait, add " &" to the end of the command.

cmd = 'tar -xvf filename.tar &';