MATLAB: How to stop a batch file when it is running too long in MATLAB 7.13 (R2011b)

MATLABsystem

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

Best Answer

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
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