Why does the "dos" command not work as expected when using "cd" to switch directories?

The "dos" command does not work as expected for switching directories with the "cd" command. 

>> [status, cmdout] = dos('cd C:\')

cmdout =
  0×0 empty char array

However, the "dos" command works for different operations like "dir" fine.

>> [status, cmdout] = dos('dir')

cmdout =

    ' Volume in drive C is Windows
      Volume Serial Number is 6405-C0AD
     
      Directory of C:\Users\..\...\...\...
 
     12/26/2024  04:35 PM    <DIR>          .
     12/30/2024  02:49 PM    <DIR>          ..

Why does the "dos" command work with "dir" but not with "cd"?

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

The behavior you are observing is expected. When you use the "dos" command to execute a command like "cd", it runs in a separate command shell instance. This means that any directory changes made using "cd" within that shell do not affect the MATLAB environment itself. Essentially, each "dos" command operates in its own isolated shell session.

For changing the current working directory within MATLAB, you should use MATLAB's built-in "cd" function. Here’s how you can do it:

cd('C:\path\to\your\directory');

This command will change the directory for the MATLAB session, allowing any subsequent file operations to occur in the new directory.

However, you can execute command-line operations like listing directory contents using "dos", which does not affect MATLAB's current directory, like "dir":

[status, cmdout] = dos('dir');
disp(cmdout);