MATLAB provides ways to deal with the shell from within MATLAB. pwd and cd give the current directory path, cd directory changes the current directory. dir and ls give a directory listing; what lists the M-files. type filename shows the contents of text file filename or filename.m. delete filename will remove the file -- it acts as the UNIX command ``rm,'' not the UNIX ``delete.'' To send an arbitrary command to your shell, prefix it with ``!'';
.1ex>> !emacs &
will start up an emacs in the background just as from an athena prompt.
This is frequently helpful for managing M-files (see 
M-files).
The command
[status result] = unix('unix command string')
also executes an arbitrary command in the operating system, returning the
command status (zero for success, nonzero for failure) and standard output.