diff --git a/matlab/tests/test_requestnames.m b/matlab/tests/test_requestnames.m
index 557144ccdb55fdc352bb83cf17315892f15429ad..ad90fca1fcc34a3b6183b6e78c7a9326aae116d1 100644
--- a/matlab/tests/test_requestnames.m
+++ b/matlab/tests/test_requestnames.m
@@ -16,8 +16,13 @@ classdef (SharedTestFixtures={...
   methods(Static)
     function test_gdat_call(testCase,shot,request)
       % actual function to test gdat call
+      import matlab.unittest.fixtures.WorkingFolderFixture;
+
       testCase.assertTrue(isnumeric(str2double(shot)));
       testCase.assertTrue(ischar(request));
+      % move to a /tmp/xx folder so if fort.0 files or others are created, it can
+      f=matlab.unittest.fixtures.WorkingFolderFixture('withsuffix','_gdat');
+      testCase.applyFixture(f);
 
       % gdat call
       gdat_call = sprintf(['gdat_' lower(testCase.Machine) '(%s,''%s'')'],shot,request);