Why does MATLAB 7.0.1 (R14SP1) running on MacOS 10.3 crash, when the symbol "~" is part of the filename argument to the IMWRITE function to write a PNG file?

On a MacOS 10.3, using "~" to indicate the home directory as part of the filename argument string to the IMWRITE command causes MATLAB to produces a crash as shown below, when writing PNG files:

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------

               Bus error detected at Fri Nov 19 20:53:39 2004

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Configuration:

    MATLAB Version:   7.0.1.24704 (R14) Service Pack 1

    MATLAB License:   276626

    Operating System: Darwin 7.6.0 Darwin Kernel Version 7.6.0: Sun Oct 

 10 12:05:27 PDT 2004; root:xnu/xnu-517.9.4.obj~1/RELEASE_PPC  Power 

 Macintosh

    Window System:    The XFree86 Project, Inc (40300000), display :0.0

    Current Visual:   0x22 (class 4, depth 24)

    Virtual Machine:  Java 1.4.2_05 with "Apple Computer, Inc." Java 

 HotSpot(TM) Client VM

      (mixed mode)

    Default Charset:  US-ASCII

    r0 = 0d6a2bb8   r8 = 00000000  r16 = f0ffcf10  r24 = 00000008

    r1 = f0ffbf20   r9 = 00000000  r17 = 00001171  r25 = 023d66a8

    r2 = 0d6a30e8  r10 = 00000000  r18 = f0ffcf70  r26 = 00000000

    r3 = 023d66a8  r11 = a0004228  r19 = 00000000  r27 = 00000000

    r4 = 023d66ac  r12 = 84042248  r20 = 0de2bc20  r28 = 023d66ac

    r5 = 000001b6  r13 = 00000000  r21 = f0ffd430  r29 = 00000500

    r6 = 00000000  r14 = 00000000  r22 = 00000000  r30 = 00000000

    r7 = 00000000  r15 = 00000010  r23 = 00000356  r31 = 0d6a29c0

    cr = 44042248   lr = 0d6a30e8  xer = 00000004  ctr = 900036e0

    vrsave = 00000000

 Stack Trace:

    [0] png.mexmac:png_destroy_write_struct + 44 bytes

    [1] png.mexmac:WritePNG + 1844 bytes

    [2] png.mexmac:mexFunction + 148 bytes

    [3] libmex.dylib:mexRunMexFile + 116 bytes

    [4] libmex.dylib:Mfh_mex::dispatch_file(int, mxArray_tag**, int, 

 mxArray_tag**) + 316 bytes

 <snip>

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

This bug has been fixed in Release 14 Service Pack 2 (R14SP2). For previous releases, please read below for any possible workarounds:

We have verified that there is a bug in MATLAB 7.0.1 (R14SP1) running on MacOS 10.3 in the way that IMWRITE handles filenames that include the "~" character, denoting a user's home directory, when writing a PNG file.

To work around this issue, specify the full path name without using "~".