I have 5 different "pathdef.m" files in various locations. Are they all necessary? If I want to affect a change, do I have to edit everyone of those?

The different folders and instances mentioned are:

C:\Users\01234567\Documents\MATLAB

C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2017b\toolbox\local\ja

C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2017b\toolbox\local

C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2017b\toolbox\local\template\ja

C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2017b\toolbox\local\template

Answer 1

[Jan]

You need to edit either

C:\Users\01234567\Documents\MATLAB

or

C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2017b\toolbox\local

You can find out which file is used on your setup, type:

which pathdef

[John Kingman]

Thanks Jan - just what I needed to know. Another question: is the purpose of the \Program Files\ ...\local instance as a default in case pathdef.m is not present in the User startup directory?

[Jan]

Yes.