Can't copy files using the DOS() command in MATLAB

I am trying to copy an external file a.txt to a new file, named b.txt, by using the following code:

command='COPY C:\text\a.txt C:\text\b.txt '
dos(command)

However, this code does not create the expected file b.txt. I already setup all the folders of the C: drive to be owned by my account (administrator), but that does not seem to work. Any suggestions on these would be appreciated.

Thank you,

[Fangjun Jiang]

use copyfile() instead?

[dpb]

Use system instead of dos altho that's probably not the real problem.

Use

[status,cmdout]=system(cmd)

to see what actually happened. Quite possibly the file and/or folder don't exist.

[Jan]

@Hugo: Do you get an error message? E.g. using dpb's suggestion should show one.

Using copyfile as suggested by Fangjun Jiang is smart also.

What happens if you run this in a command windows of the operating system?

"I already setup all the folders of the C: drive to be owned by my account (administrator), but that does not seem to work." - Really? This would be a really bad idea. On one hand working as admin has severe drawbacks: you can e.g. destroy Matlab toolbox files, which is impossible without admin privilegs. On the other hand many folders on C:\Windows should not even have Admin access for security reasons. Only the the System account should be able to access these folders.

Finally working on the root level of the C disk is a bad programming habit also. This was ugly in Windos 3.1 booted from a disk already and is not smarter in Windows 11.