External application stalls and locks up Matlab, tic/toc delay check does not work to pull Matlab out of stall.

I am iteratively calling an external application (OpenVSP) in a script via:

!vsp.exe -script runCalculations.vspscript

Sometimes this external app stalls or cannot converge on a solution and Maltab is unable to recognize that the elapsed time has passed the defined limit. How can I allow Matlab to actively identify this time limit during a stall or that OpenVSP has stalled at all? I have made an effort in the following code which is unable to detect the stall and timer. My next thought is to retain the process ID but that feels like it would have the same issues.

Cheers!

clear timer

timer = tic; yourDelay = 10; checkVal = false;

while ~checkVal

    if toc(timer) >= (yourDelay-1)
        
        % Detect the stall and break while printing an error
        VSP_struct(iter).VSPstall = true;
        warning('VSP Stall')
        break;
    
    else
        
        % Run the code and break out of the loop
        !vsp.exe -script runCalculations.vspscript
        fprintf(' Calcs Done!')
        checkVal = true;
    
    end

end

[Walter Roberson]

Change your code to use the System. Diagnostics.Process to launch the process. You can use the interface to kill the process if it takes too long.

[Austin Stark]

Does the System.Diagnostics.Process method allow Matlab to continue operating once executed rather than waiting on the process to complete like I have now? That is my main issue currently. If Matlab is allowed to continue operating while OpenVSP runs in the background then I can use the PID to kill it after a length of time.

The below code is the method I plan to use, per your other posts. Thoughts?

proc = System.Diagnostics.Process(); 
proc.StartInfo.FileName = 'vsp.exe';
proc.StartInfo.Arguments = 'vsp -script RunCalculations.vspscript';
proc.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
proc.StartInfo.RedirectStandardInput = true;
proc.Start();

pid = proc.Id();

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

clear timer
timer = tic;

while 1
    
    % Check if process is still running
    [status,result] = system('tasklist /FI "imagename eq vsp.exe" /fo table /nh');
    
    % If not running, done and break
    if result == ('INFO: No tasks are running which match the specified criteria.')
        
        fprintf('Calcs Done!')
        break;
    
    % If running for too long, warn and break
    elseif toc(timer) > timeDelay
        
        warning('VSP Stall!')
        killcmd = sprintf('taskkill /PID %d', pid);
        systm(killcmd)
        break;
    
    % Must be running under time limit still...
    else
        
        fprintf('Process Running...')
        
    end
    
end

[Austin Stark]

I am now getting an error where the system cannot find the process, however, it is clearly visible and killable in Task Manager. Any help?

>> p(1).Id

ans =

  int32

   16280

>> cmd = sprintf('taskkill /PID %d', p(1).Id, '/F');
>> system(cmd)
ERROR: The process "16280taskkill" not found. 
ERROR: The process "47taskkill" not found. 
ERROR: The process "70" not found. 

ans =

   128

[Voss]

% cmd = sprintf('taskkill /PID %d', p(1).Id, '/F');
cmd = sprintf('taskkill /PID %d /F', p(1).Id);

[Walter Roberson]

Does the System.Diagnostics.Process method allow Matlab to continue operating once executed rather than waiting on the process to complete like I have now?

Yes, definitely.