Return the output of an eval function

I am trying to read the status of an external program that I call from a matlab function. The program is called testConn.exe. I call the program like this:

commandSTR = ['!testConn upload ' ipAddress ' testLink];
eval(commandStr);

when I run the function everything works and I see a status message from testConn in the command window with a status message like:

exit status 0 (No errors)

or

exit status 8 (No connection)

My question is how do I capture those status returns so that I can use them for error control? I should add that when I try something like

a = eval(commadSTR);

I get an error from matlab saying unexpected matlab operator; Is there an alternative to the eval function?

Thanks,

Jesse

Answer 1

[Geoff Hayes]

Jesse - perhaps try using system. You may be able to do something like

 status = system(commandSTR);

which may capture the exit status of the command.

[Walter Roberson]

See also evalc(), but system() is better for this purpose.