Best way to override MATLAB's default static javaclasspath

Question

MATLAB is configured to search its static java class path before searching the user-modifiable dynamic path. Unfortunately, the static path contains quite a number of very old p

Answer 1

I got an official response from Mathworks:

As of MATLAB R2013a (also in R2012b), classes can be added to the front of the static Java class path by including the following line in javaclasspath.txt:

Any directory that is after this line in javaclasspath.txt will be added to the front of the static Java class path. This is an undocumented use of javaclasspath.txt as of R2013a.

But overall in MATLAB, the ability to add classes to the front of the static Java classpath is not available through javaclasspath.txt in MATLAB 8.0 (R2012b).

MATLAB searches for classpath.txt in the following order:

1. In the startup directory. As of MATLAB 8.0 (R2012b) a warning will be shown if the file is found there and it will be ignored.

2. In the first directory on the MATLABPATH environment variable. (This environment variable is used in the bin/matlab shell script on Linux and in general is not used by the end-user).

3. In the toolbox/local directory.

Although the MATLABPATH environment variable of point 2 is normally not used by end-users we can use it in a workaround to allow reading a custom classpath.txt outside of the toolbox/local directory.

On Windows:

You will need to create the MATLABPATH environment variable. The first directory on it should be your directory with the custom classpath.txt AND you will also need to add the toolbox\local directory as second option. So from a cmd prompt you could do:

set MATLABPATH=c:\Users\user\Documents\myMATLABClasspath;c:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2012b \toolbox\local matlab.exe