How can I get the PID of the current MATLAB session?

I want to find out the PID (process ID) of the current MATLAB session programmatically on Windows and Unix machines.

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

Starting in R2025a, you can obtain the PID of a MATLAB process with the MATLAB command:

>> matlabProcessID

This function returns the PID as a uint64 variable.

In earlier versions of MATLAB, you can obtain the PID of a MATLAB process with the MATLAB command:

>> feature('getpid')

This returns the PID as a double variable. Please note that the use of the "feature" function is undocumented, meaning that it can be removed or changed at any time.

Another option would be to use the basic system commands. To get started, here are the commands to get all processes with "matlab" in their name:

% For Windows
>> [~,procs] = system('tasklist | findstr -i "MATLAB.exe"')
% For Unix
>> [~,procs] = system("ps aux | grep matlab | grep your_username")

.

NOTE: If the goal is to manage multiple MATLAB sessions for computation, we recommend using the "batch" function in the Parallel Computing Toolbox. This enables the user to run scripts and functions in the background, and it automatically returns a "parallel.Job" object that enables access to the state of the running script and the methods to control the running script.

https://www.mathworks.com/help/parallel-computing/run-a-batch-job.html

[Oliver Woodford]

I believe this will only work if there is only one instance of MATLAB running. It isn't useful if you are running multiple instances, and want the process ID of the particular instance, because it cannot distinguish between them.

Answer 2

[Darin McCoy]

Butttt...later versions of matlab allow you to do it with this command

feature('getpid')