In the Unix architecture, symbolic links point to another file / script / program, such as a shortcut does in the Windows architecture. The reason the MATLAB installer offers to install them is because the /bin and /usr/bin directories are in the system path, while the MATLAB directory is not.
The /bin and /usr/bin directories contain common system programs, as well as links to other programs, so if you type a command such as 'ifconfig' from anywhere, it will check those directories (and others in the path) first.
这很方便从任何目录启动MATLAB；如果安装了链接，则无需更改为MATLAB目录即可启动MATLAB。请记住，您需要将安装程序作为“ root”运行，以安装符号链接。
In order to manually create the symbolic link, browse to the /usr/local/bin/ folder and run the following command:
Ln-s $ matlab/bin/matlab matlab
where $MATLAB is the MATLAB installation directory.
