genpath related question, replacing genpath

I have two questions regarding genpath:

(1) When I use genpath as follows:

p = genpath('/Users/myname')

I get the following:

/Users/myname/:/Users/myname/.Trash:/Users/myname/.Trash/Recovered files:/Users/myname/.Trash/Recovered files #1:/Users/myname ...

..what is that even supposed to mean? why am I not getting a string of the subfolders?

(2) In the following: addpath(genpath('/Users/myname')) I want to replace the genpath (it does not work propertly with a certain program). How can I do that?

Thanks

Answer 1

[Geoff Hayes]

According to the documentation on genpath (type help genpath or doc genpath in the Command Window for details)

 P = genpath(D) returns a path string starting in D, plus, recursively, 
 all the subdirectories of D, including empty subdirectories.

So your above result, /Users/myname/:/Users/myname/.Trash:/Users/myname/.Trash/Rec…, includes the path string starting in /Users/myname/, and all subdirectories of * /Users/myname/ with each subdirectory separated by a colon.

As for addpath, in the Command Window type help add path or doc add path for details. It includes several examples

 Examples
        addpath c:\matlab\work
        addpath /home/user/matlab
        addpath /home/user/matlab:/home/user/matlab/test:
        addpath /home/user/matlab /home/user/matlab/test

I tried addpath(genpath('/Users/geoff/Dev/test')) and it worked fine, adding this directory and all subdirectories as expected. If you are finding that your statement addpath(genpath('/Users/myname')) does not work, then simply edit out the directories from genpath that are invalid:

 pathString =genpath('/Users/myname');
 % do your edits on pathString
 addpath(pathStringEdited);