dos - Execute DOS command and return output - MATLAB (original) (raw)

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Execute DOS command and return output

For platform-independent code, use the system command.

Syntax

Description

[[status](#btf8jkj%5Fsep%5Fshared-status),[cmdout](#btf8jkj%5Fsep%5Fshared-cmdout)] = dos([command](#btf8jkj-command)) calls the operating system to execute the specified command and returns the output of the DOS command to cmdout.

For more examples, tips, and information about limitations, see system.

example

Examples

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Display the current folder using the cd command. Astatus of zero indicates that the command completed successfully. MATLAB® returns a character vector containing the current folder in cmdout.

command = 'cd'; [status,cmdout] = dos(command)

Input Arguments

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Operating system command, specified as a string or a character vector. The command can be a Windows® UI program that opens a user interface, or a DOS console command that you typically run in a DOS command window. The command executes in a DOS shell, which might not be the shell from which you started MATLAB.

Example: 'dir'

Output Arguments

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Output of the operating system command, returned as a character vector. The system shell might not properly represent non-Unicode® characters.

Extended Capabilities

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Usage notes and limitations:

stdin of the calling process is inherited on Windows and UNIX®.
On UNIX, if a second output is requested,stdout is redirected to a pipe. Otherwise, stdout is inherited from the calling process.
On Windows, the nargout determines whether the output read from the pipe is stored in a variable or sent tostdout of the calling process. If the number of arguments is 1, the output from the pipe is sent tostdout. Otherwise, it is stored in a variable.

Version History

Introduced before R2006a