CD Change Working Directory Function
Section: Operating System Functions
Usage
Changes the current working directory to the one specified as the argument. The general syntax for its use iscd('dirname')
but this can also be expressed as
cd 'dirname'
or
cd dirname
Examples of all three usages are given below.
Generally speaking, dirname
is any string that would be accepted
by the underlying OS as a valid directory name. For example, on most
systems, '.'
refers to the current directory, and '..'
refers
to the parent directory. Also, depending on the OS, it may be necessary
to ``escape'' the directory seperators. In particular, if directories
are seperated with the backwards-slash character '\\'
, then the
path specification must use double-slashes '\\\\'
. Note: to get
file-name completion to work at this time, you must use one of the
first two forms of the command.
Example
Thepwd
command returns the current directory location. First,
we use the simplest form of the cd
command, in which the directory
name argument is given unquoted.
--> pwd ans = /home/basu/dev/branches/FreeMat4/help/tmp --> cd .. --> pwd ans = /home/basu/dev/branches/FreeMat4/help
Next, we use the ``traditional'' form of the function call, using both the parenthesis and a variable to store the quoted string.
--> a = pwd; --> cd(a) --> pwd ans = /home/basu/dev/branches/FreeMat4/help/tmp