how to determine if another instance of matlab is running ?

hi, anyone who can tell me how to determine if another instance of matlab is running? (using a 'trick' right now: automatically write a dummy file when starting up matlab and deleting it when closing. checking for this file tells me if matlab is running or not. but there has to be a more elegant way (that also works if matlab closes not the way it should) I reckon?) thanks!

[Daniel Shub]

A little more information about your OS, MATLAB version, and licensing, would be helpful.

[Peter]

I'm using windows XP, matlab R2009bSP1, with academic campus license.

Answer 1

[Friedrich]

Hi,

on windows you can do:

[out, res] = dos('tasklist')

This will give you a list of all running programs. Search in that list for matlab.exe:

   strfind(res,'MATLAB.exe')

On Linux you can use the top command to get the list.

[Peter]

thanks Friedrich,

when matlab is running a second instance, matlab.exe is indeed twice in the task list. so this will do!