How can I stop a batch file when it is running too long in MATLAB 7.13 (R2011b)?

Here’s what I’d like to do, and wondering if there’s a way to do it with TIMER in matlab--

%run m-file bla.m

>>bla

%do matlab stuff in bla.m

‘hello world’

% make a call to command line DOS batch file

! Run.bat

%if the process ‘run.bat’ gets hung up, and doesn’t finish after 10 seconds, terminate it (^c) and continue running bla.m

‘process run.bat did not finish…’

return

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

The key point is to use SYSTEM function to use Windows command ‘start’ to run the batch file and Timer object in MATLAB to check the execution. Here is a sample code.

function bla

%%Display "hello world"

disp('hello world');

%%call to command line DOS batch file

system('start run.bat');

%%create a Timer object

%  call function 'check' after 10 seconds which is defined by 

%  'StartDelay' value

t = timer('TimerFcn',@check,'StopFcn',@terminate,'UserData',false,...

            'StartDelay',10); 

start(t);

end

%%check function will set the flag t.UserData to be true, and call

%  stop function of the Timer object 

function check(t,~) 

          t.UserData = true;

          stop(t);

          delete(t);

end

%%Stop function of the Timer object which terminates DOS batch file

function terminate(t,~)

if t.UserData

      term = system('taskkill /im cmd.exe');

      % display

      fprintf('\nprocess run.bat did not finish…\n')

else

      delete(t);

end

end