"matlab drive" remove space in filename

I think this has been asked before, but we have a new release of Matlab and it may now be fixed. I have some (distributed) Matlab programs which cannot handle spaces in file or folder names. This is not uncommon and best programming practise is always to avoid using pathnames with spaces. Sadly the Matlab connector drive, by default creates a folder with a space in it "Matlab Drive". Is there a fix to this or a way to change it? Any other workarounds? I am sure it will be changed at some stage in the future.

[Guillaume]

"which cannot handle spaces in file or folder names. This is not uncommon"

Huh? I would say it's rare and a clear indication that the program is very outdated. Windows has been using "Program Files" for several decades now.

"best programming practise is always to avoid using pathnames with spaces."

Absolutely not, best programming practice is to make no assumption on what is allowed or not allowed in a path and accept any valid path that is valid for the OS (i.e. let the OS tells you if a path is valid).

I strongly doubt that matlab will start removing spaces from their folder name, so best course of action would be to fix your programs.

[Richard Barrett-Jolley]

Thank you so much for taking the time to address my quiery. So yes indeed, one option would be to re-write their code for them. As you can imagine I would never have thought of that myself. The program suite, if anyone is curious, is from the Physionet suite of programs maintained at MiT Physionet.

I can sort it fine for day to day use (Dropbox), but it just means I can't use it with the "Matlab Drive".

[Guillaume]

The code is open source, so in the spirit of open source, you wouldn't be rewriting it for them, but rewriting it for yourself and sharing it with the community.

Answer 1

[Guillaume]

• When you install the connector, you can choose the path of the folder, at least on Windows. I would assume the same is true for other OSes.
• All supported OSes have the ability to create symbolic links. On windows you may prefer to create a junction instead (Both are created with mklink on Windows). Your synbolic/junction can use whatever path you wish (one with no space) and point to any path support by your OS.
• You can also contact Mathworks support directly to ask them to change their folder name. I would suspect they won't be very receptive though.

[Conor Burgess]

Guillaume is correct, we have no plans to change the default folder name, but you can change it when selecting your MATLAB Drive folder during the setup on all operating systems. It is possible to change the folder name to remove the space by:

1. Shutting down MATLAB Drive Connector
2. Renaming the folder
3. Restarting MATLAB Drive Connector
4. Follow the prompt to point MATLAB Drive Connector at the renamed folder.