How do I run a Linux shell command from Octave?

Question

I want to run commands like pdflatex and cp from an octave script. Is there a way to do that?

Answer 1

Use the function system(<command>) to call a shell command from Octave. Replace <command> with the command you want to execute. (Note that MATLAB allows a shell command to be executed by prefixing it with an exclamation mark !, but Octave does not support this syntax. See this Wikibooks page for more information.)

Answer 2

unix(command) is another way to go. If you'd like to get properties of files directories etc. Xoctave does it automatically.