Set environment variable before startup

Hello,

I am running Matlab 2009a on Ubuntu 11.04.

I want to change the startup directory of matlab and I have found in the documentation the following instructions

"You can specify that the userpath be the startup directory by setting the value of the environment variable MATLAB_USE_USERPATH to 1 prior to startup. By default, userpath is userhome/Documents/MATLAB, and MATLAB automatically adds the userpath directory to the top of the search path upon startup."

How precisely do I change the value of the environment variable before startup? I am still a linux newbie, so detailed instructions would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

[Walter Roberson]

Iain, at the linux prompt, before you start MATLAB, please execute the command

echo $SHELL

and tell us what the result is.

Knowing that will help us tailor the response to your situation, as there major methods of permanently setting environment variables depend upon which shell you are using.

[Iain]

The command returns

/bin/bash

[Daniel Shub]

Are you starting MATLAB from the command line or from a launcher? If you are starting it from a launcher, what DE are you using (e.g., Gnome 2.x, Gnome 3, KDE, etc)?

[Iain]

I'm using it from a Launcher, but I don't mind using the command line. By DE I assume you mean Desktop Environment - I think its Unity under Ubuntu 11.04.

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

Edit your ~/.profile to contain

export MATLAB_USE_USERPATH=1

Beyond that, please see the section "Assigning userpath as the Startup Folder on a UNIX or Macintosh Platform" in userpath

[Iain]

I've done this but Matlab still doesn't start in the userpath directory. I've kept the default userpath which is

~/Documents/MATLAB

but it still starts in

~/

I've noticed however that the environment variable is set - because once Matlab is launched, the command getenv('MATLAB_USE_USERPATH') issued in Matlab returns 1

Unless I've done something else wrong, it appears that the instructions in the documentation are not successful in my case.

[Iain]

I've solved the problem to my satisfaction. For some reason the startup.m file runs even if the startup directory isn't necessarily the directory containing startup.m, so putting

cd <desired current directory>

in startup.m makes it automatically go to the directory I want.

I would have thought that startup.m only runs in the startup directory - any explanations?

[Walter Roberson]

I do not know why it does that, but the userpath() documentation does say more than once that this userpath processing only applies if the userpath is not changed in startup.m, so it _is_ documented behavior.