How to start MATLAB in terminal (Mac) with the folder where I start it as the initial working folder?

When I start Matlab by typing matlab in the terminal on MacBook, the current folder is the last working folder from the previous session. In the Preferences-General, 'the last working folder from the previous MATLAB session' is checked. There is an option there to specify the initial folder, but I don't know how to specify the folder where Matlab is started. Is it possible?

In .bachrc, I have the following:

export MATLAB_USE_USERWORK=1

alias matlab='/Applications/MATLAB_R2017a.app/Contents/MacOS/MATLAB'

Is there any way to define the initial working folder to be the folder where Matlab is started from the terminal?

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

Use the -sd or -useStartupFolderPref options. https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/matlabmac.html

[HN]

Thank you so much for your advice. I tried it both:

matlab -sd

matlab -useStartupFolderPref

but then the startup folder is now

/Users/username/Documents/MATLAB

not the folder where matlab is started. I've been looking for some hints in matlab help and Google search, but haven't been able to figure this out...

[Walter Roberson]

alias matlab='/Applications/MATLAB_R2017a.app/Contents/MacOS/MATLAB -sd $(pwd)'

[HN]

It works great! Thank you so much for your help!