I would like to ask you how to specify waiting for closing of specific program which was started before. I am showing here an example with command waitfor but unfortunately I don't know how to write it correctly, therefore I am asking you for help.
system('"C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" &');
waitfor "closing of chrome.exe"
You should follow the advice in this other Q&A to find the PID of the new program right after you start it. Then, in a loop, check to see if that PID is still running (using again the same process as before), and pause(1) to avoid checking too frequently.
I guess you can do something like:
time_in_seconds=60
while ~isfile("output_folder/file.db")
pause(time_in_seconds)
end
Note that this program, as is, requires that file to exist at some point, otherwise infinite loop. Make sure you put safeguards to end it in case the file does not get created (like a time limit).
But I am not sure it makes sense to have MATLAB waiting for 40 minutes for a script to finish...
I have Pari/GP 32-bit and would like to implement any type of code which runs for a limited amount of time, then automatically stops if nothing is produced by that time. Here is a pseudocode example:
command
...
run command
if run time over 3 minutes
automatically interrupt the program and stop running
I know there is a basic way to do this, I just never found it in the PARI/GP guide. Any help? Thanks.
alarm(5);for(i=1,10^10,continue)
I have a Matlab script that uses the dos command to open an exe. This exe pauses awaiting user input. For this project I need everything to be scripted and dynamic, so matlab has to be able to continue running its script, dynamically determine what to input to the running exe, and then input it.
So far, I have been able to get the exe to run in the background and let the matlab script continue by using dos('test.exe &'), but I cant get then get matlab to send inputs to the running exe. I have tried batch files and I still run into the same issue, which is how do I automate the sending of inputs to the cmd line when the cmd line exe running is paused awaiting user input?
My best guess would be that I need to reroute the standard output of matlab to the standard input of a specific, already open instance of cmd, but I have no idea how to do that and have been unable to find anything so far on the internet. Any insight would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
There is a way. It's just not elegant.
When you call a program with &, its window appears in the foreground and has focus (at least on my system). So you can send it keyboard events from Matlab using the java.awt.Robot class.
If you need to automatize the conversion from characters to key presses, you probably need a big switch statement along these lines. The following example defines the events manually, which is only practical for small inputs.
robot = java.awt.Robot;
dos('copy con &'); % open MS-DOS Window that will just echo the input text
pause(1) % allow some time for the external program to start up
robot.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);
robot.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_H);
robot.keyRelease(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_H);
robot.keyRelease(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);
robot.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_E);
robot.keyRelease(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_E);
robot.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_L);
robot.keyRelease(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_L);
robot.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_L);
robot.keyRelease(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_L);
robot.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_O);
robot.keyRelease(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_O);
robot.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);
robot.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_1);
robot.keyRelease(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_1);
robot.keyRelease(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);
robot.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_ENTER);
robot.keyRelease(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_ENTER);
Here's an example run:
Unfortunately there is no way to do what you are describing.
The fact that the external program pauses and awaits for an input is a serious challenge: for Matlab, there is just a program running in the background, and it has no way to "know" that this program is awaiting for an input at a given moment.
Then, another issue is that there is no "Matlabish" way to send a command to a running thread send in the background. edit The solution proposed by Luis is ugly but works for this.
If you can modify the external program, then you can certainly avoid the problem by defining a different protocol for input tranfer, like TCP/IP. But it's not a general answer and I guess you don't have such a possibility.
You could try to use Sikuli for this, if you are really desperate.
Thanks to the wonderful explanation by Luis Mendo, I have quickly put together a function that takes a string input and outputs the proper robot commands. It works for me!
function typeStringOut(robot,text)
keyMatch = {};
keyMatch(1,:) = {'`','-','=',',','.','/',';','[',']','\'};
keyMatch(2,:) = {'~','_','+','<','>','?',':','{','}','|'};
keyMatch(3,:) = {'BACK_QUOTE','MINUS','EQUALS','COMMA','PERIOD','SLASH','SEMICOLON','OPEN_BRACKET','CLOSE_BRACKET','BACK_SLASH'};
numKeyMatch = {};
numKeyMatch(1,:) = {'1','2','3','4','5','6','7','8','9','0'};
numKeyMatch(2,:) = {'!','#','#','$','%','^','&','*','(',')'};
for i=1:length(text)
if isstrprop(text(i),'alpha')
if isstrprop(text(i),'upper')
robot.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);
end
eval(['robot.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_',upper(text(i)),');']);
if isstrprop(text(i),'upper')
robot.keyRelease(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);
end
elseif isstrprop(text(i),'digit')
eval(['robot.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_',text(i),');']);
elseif isstrprop(text(i),'wspace')&&strcmp(text(i),' ')
eval('robot.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_SPACE);');
elseif isstrprop(text(i),'punct')||isstrprop(text(i),'graphic')
switch text(i)
case {'`','-','=',',','.','/',';','[',']','\'}
matchIdx = strcmp(keyMatch(1,:),text(i));
eval(['robot.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_',keyMatch{3,matchIdx},');']);
case {'~','_','+','<','>','?',':','{','}','|'}
robot.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);
matchIdx = strcmp(keyMatch(2,:),text(i));
eval(['robot.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_',keyMatch{3,matchIdx},');']);
robot.keyRelease(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);
case {'!','#','#','$','%','^','&','*','(',')'}
robot.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);
matchIdx = strcmp(numKeyMatch(2,:),text(i));
eval(['robot.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_',numKeyMatch{3,matchIdx},');']);
robot.keyRelease(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);
otherwise
error([text(i),' is unknown character']);
end
elseif strcmp(text(i),'<')||strcmp(text(i),'>')
robot.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);
matchIdx = strcmp(keyMatch(2,:),text(i));
eval(['robot.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_',keyMatch{1,matchIdx},');']);
robot.keyRelease(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);
else
error([text(i),' is unknown character']);
end
end
robot.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_ENTER);
robot.keyRelease(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_ENTER);
end
A colleague has a MATLAB startup.m file that contains interactive code (it calls the command questdlg to ask him which project directory he wishes to work in).
This works fine for him when running MATLAB directly. However, he also needs to run MATLAB code in parallel, having started up a matlabpool.
When starting up, the workers in the matlabpool are running his startup.m file, getting to the questdlg and then hanging (infinitely, or until Ctrl C).
An easy solution is to just get rid of the interactive code from his startup.m, as it's not really essential.
But is there a way to detect whether this startup.m is being run by a worker starting up - something similar to isdeployed or ismcc? Then he could keep the interactive code that he finds useful, but only execute it when not starting up a worker.
The command getCurrentWorker seemed like it might be what was needed, but I believe that only works during the execution of a task, rather than at startup.
You could use the usejava function to see if the interactive desktop is running, which is probably a good enough approximation unless you frequently use -nodesktop mode.
if usejava('desktop')
questdlg(...);
end
Take a look at labindex and, failing that, labSend and labReceive.
At least for my R2014b,
isempty(getCurrentWorker)
seem to do the job:
>> getCurrentWorker
ans =
[]
>> parfor i=1:2;disp(getCurrentWorker);end
Worker
Host: IMP.OIMRDS
ComputerType: WIN64
ProcessId: 15784
Worker
Host: IMP.OIMRDS
ComputerType: WIN64
ProcessId: 17220
This question already has an answer here:
How to abort a running program in MATLAB?
(1 answer)
Closed 7 years ago.
I write a long running script in Matlab, e.g.
tic;
d = rand(5000);
[a,b,c] = svd(d);
toc;
It seems running forever. Becasue I press F5 in the editor window. So I cannot press C-Break to stop in the Matlab console.
I just want to know how to stop the script. I am current use Task Manager to kill Matlab, which is really silly.
Thanks.
Matlab help says this-
For M-files that run a long time, or that call built-ins or MEX-files that run a long time, Ctrl+C does not always effectively stop execution. Typically, this happens on Microsoft Windows platforms rather than UNIX[1] platforms. If you experience this problem, you can help MATLAB break execution by including a drawnow, pause, or getframe function in your M-file, for example, within a large loop. Note that Ctrl+C might be less responsive if you started MATLAB with the -nodesktop option.
So I don't think any option exist. This happens with many matlab functions that are complex. Either we have to wait or don't use them!.
If ctrl+c doesn't respond right away because your script is too long/complex, hold it.
The break command doesn't run when matlab is executing some of its deeper scripts, and either it won't log a ctrl sequence in the buffer, or it clears the buffer just before or just after it completes those pieces of code. In either case, when matlab returns to execute more of your script, it will recognize that you are holding ctrl+c and terminate.
For longer running programs, I usually try to find a good place to provide a status update and I always accompany that with some measure of time using tic and toc. Depending on what I am doing, I might use run time, segment time, some kind of average, etc...
For really long running programs, I found this to be exceptionally useful
http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/16649-send-text-message-to-cell-phone/content/send_text_message.m
but it looks like they have some newer functions for this too.
MATLAB doesn't respond to Ctrl-C while executing a mex implemented function such as svd. Also when MATLAB is allocating big chunk of memory it doesn't respond. A good practice is to always run your functions for small amount of data, and when all test passes run it for actual scale. When time is an issue, you would want to analyze how much time each segment of code runs as well as their rough time complexity.
Consider having multiple matlab sessions. Keep the main session window (the pretty one with all the colours, file manager, command history, workspace, editor etc.) for running stuff that you know will terminate.
Stuff that you are experimenting with, say you are messing with ode suite and you get lots of warnings: matrix singular, because you altered some parameter and didn't predict what would happen, run in a separate session:
dos('matlab -automation -r &')
You can kill that without having to restart the whole of Matlab.
One solution I adopted--for use with java code, but the concept is the same with mexFunctions, just messier--is to return a FutureValue and then loop while FutureValue.finished() or whatever returns true. The actual code executes in another thread/process. Wrapping a try,catch around that and a FutureValue.cancel() in the catch block works for me.
In the case of mex functions, you will need to return somesort of pointer (as an int) that points to a struct/object that has all the data you need (native thread handler, bool for complete etc). In the case of a built in mexFunction, your mexFunction will most likely need to call that mexFunction in the separate thread. Mex functions are just DLLs/shared objects after all.
PseudoCode
FV = mexLongProcessInAnotherThread();
try
while ~mexIsDone(FV);
java.lang.Thread.sleep(100); %pause has a memory leak
drawnow; %allow stdout/err from mex to display in command window
end
catch
mexCancel(FV);
end
Since you mentioned Task Manager, I'll guess you're using Windows. Assuming you're running your script within the editor, if you aren't opposed to quitting the editor at the same time as quitting the running program, the keyboard shortcut to end a process is:
Alt + F4
(By which I mean press the 'Alt' and 'F4' keys on your keyboard simultaneously.)
Alternatively, as mentioned in other answers,
Ctrl + C
should also work, but will not quit the editor.
if you are running your matlab on linux, you can terminate the matlab by command in linux consule.
first you should find the PID number of matlab by this code:
top
then you can use this code to kill matlab:
kill
example:
kill 58056
To add on:
you can insert a time check within a loop with intensive or possible deadlock, ie.
:
section_toc_conditionalBreakOff;
:
where within this section
if (toc > timeRequiredToBreakOff) % time conditional break off
return;
% other options may be:
% 1. display intermediate values with pause;
% 2. exit; % in some cases, extreme : kill/ quit matlab
end