Slow Matlab startup if startup.m contains many path additions
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I am asking/answering my own question, hoping it will help someone with the same issue:
If Matlab takes 3+ minutes to start up, how can I speed it up? My startup.m file contains many calls to add directories to my path, and those directories reside on a network drive. For example:
path(path, 'S:\top_code_directory\some_subdirectory') ; % Many calls like this
path(path, genpath('S:\project_directories')) ; % Many subdirectories are added
1 Comment
Accepted Answer
Richard Crozier
on 4 Oct 2012
Edited: Richard Crozier
on 4 Oct 2012
build the path yourself and do a single call to addpath, addpath expects a single string containing path names separated by semicolons. So try something like the following:
apath = 'S:\top_code_directory\some_subdirectory;'
newpath = [genpath('S:\project_directories'), apath];
addpath(newpath);
Obviously your construction of the path string to add will be more complex. Just remember that genpath already produces a string ending in a semicolon so you don't need to add one to the string produced by it.
You will find this much faster, as the bottleneck is the function path.m
More Answers (1)
K E
on 3 Jul 2012
Edited: K E
on 3 Jul 2012
3 Comments
Robert Cumming
on 4 Oct 2012
By doing it this way every user of your machine will also have all your paths added. Be careful as you may not want this...
Richard Crozier
on 4 Oct 2012
No, only users who have access to my startup directory which is only accessible to me, so they have to also be logged in as me. Valid point for others though. I've discovered the real answer to the problem anyway which I have posted below.
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