Slow Matlab startup if startup.m contains many path additions

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I am asking/answering my own question, hoping it will help someone with the same issue:
If Matlab takes 3+ minutes to start up, how can I speed it up? My startup.m file contains many calls to add directories to my path, and those directories reside on a network drive. For example:
path(path, 'S:\top_code_directory\some_subdirectory') ; % Many calls like this
path(path, genpath('S:\project_directories')) ; % Many subdirectories are added
  1 Comment
Jan
Jan on 3 Jul 2012
Edited: Jan on 4 Jul 2012
Please add an example for "add directories to my path". This will increase the chance, that others with the same problem will find this thread. Is the time wasted in addpath or in genpath? Thanks.

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Accepted Answer

Richard Crozier
Richard Crozier on 4 Oct 2012
Edited: Richard Crozier on 4 Oct 2012
build the path yourself and do a single call to addpath, addpath expects a single string containing path names separated by semicolons. So try something like the following:
apath = 'S:\top_code_directory\some_subdirectory;'
newpath = [genpath('S:\project_directories'), apath];
addpath(newpath);
Obviously your construction of the path string to add will be more complex. Just remember that genpath already produces a string ending in a semicolon so you don't need to add one to the string produced by it.
You will find this much faster, as the bottleneck is the function path.m
  1 Comment
K E
K E on 8 Oct 2012
What is nice about this solution is that I can put this in my startup file. I've had the saved path (via my original savepath approach) get corrupted a couple times so having it in my startup will be more robust. Thanks for answering after all this time - shows the value of Answers in retaining / gaining knowledge.

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More Answers (1)

K E
K E on 3 Jul 2012
Edited: K E on 3 Jul 2012
Most of the 3 minutes were spent generating Matlab's path, but it is not necessary to generate the path at each startup. Instead, remove the path calls from startup.m, save it, and restart Matlab, noting a faster startup. Generate the desired path from the command prompt using the same calls that used to be in the startup.m file, then execute the savepath command. Every subsequent time Matlab starts, it loads the saved path. The improvement in startup time can be verified using the -timing option as described here. Thanks to Tech Support for showing me this solution.
  3 Comments
Robert Cumming
Robert Cumming on 4 Oct 2012
By doing it this way every user of your machine will also have all your paths added. Be careful as you may not want this...
Richard Crozier
Richard Crozier on 4 Oct 2012
No, only users who have access to my startup directory which is only accessible to me, so they have to also be logged in as me. Valid point for others though. I've discovered the real answer to the problem anyway which I have posted below.

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